Sunset
by FlyingFleshEater
Summary: Of three things, I was absolutely certain. First, Alice Cullen was a vampire. Second, there was a part of her, and I wasn't sure how dominant that part may be, that thirsted for my blood. Third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with her. JPoV
1. Preface

**Sunset**

**Preface**

**By: FlyingFleshEater**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight.**

**AN: This entire story is in Jasper's PoV.**

For a moment, I feel nothing but surprise. But only for a moment.

And then I'm on the ground, pain exploding from within. My eyes burn with tears and obstruct my vision. I claw at my wound, my long fingers bent into talons as I tear at it, trying to pull away the pain. I can hear awful blood curdling shrieks around me, pounding relentlessly at my ears. I could taste the blood in my mouth, my throat. It gurgled and spluttered out over my face.

I should have stayed in Texas. I should have avoided all contact with them. With her. I should have, but I couldn't regret my decision.

How can anyone regret the best thing to ever happen to them?

I can't regret her. Loving her, knowing her, just seeing her for the first time was too good of a thing. The most amazing thing.

But now I was here, dying, bleeding to death ironically enough, on this cold unfeeling street. All because of her. Because I had been the bigger masochist in the end. Because I had been the one to walk away.

It was my fault in the end.

I had hurt her. And now I was dying. My eyes were becoming heavy now; my hand had fallen still long ago.

As I slipped into the dark oblivion I could almost make out the sound of my angel's voice calling my name. Then I knew no more.

**AN: If I get a few reviews for this thing, like five or so, I'll put up the first chapter tomorrow.**


	2. Gilbert

**Sunset**

**Chapter One-Gilbert**

**By: FlyingFleshEater**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or Spongebob. Buffalo Gap, Tuscola, and Abilene are real, I've been there, and I'll try to keep the facts straight. I made the city of Gilbert up. If it actually exists and I got it all wrong . . . sorry.**

The sun shines almost every day in West Texas. The sky is big and full of light. In Tuscola, out on the Country Roads, the hills are covered in trees and cacti and those giant wind turbines. When the sun sets, it lights the sky on fire in reds, oranges, pinks, purples, yellows, and blues and provides the perfect backdrop. It's like a painting, like God smeared the colors on the clouds. The best are in February.

It's not like that in Gilbert. The sky is permanently grey. And when it's too warm to snow, the sky pelts you with freezing rain. But mostly it just snows.

I sat silently in the passenger seat of my white '69 Ford as my older brother drove, looking out the window at the drab colors of the small city. We didn't speak. Everything that needed to have been said and a fair deal of things that shouldn't have been said had already passed and he was still mad at me. I didn't dare bring anything up, it would all dissolve into a fight over this move no matter what the topic was.

I was being sent away. Sent from the heat of Texas to the bitter cold of Gilbert, Minnesota to live with my brother and his family. It wasn't the fact that my father couldn't deal with me anymore that made me angry. It was all about leaving Abilene. I had been born there; I had wanted to die there, to raise my own kids there someday.

My brother, Josh, was not happy with the trouble I'd caused, calling me ungrateful, selfish, a dick-head, and many other bad names, some of which I had never heard before. We had begun quite a violent shouting match just outside the church after my mother's funeral.

I could still feel the burning shame I had felt then; could almost hear the shocked mutters and see the anguish and disappointment on my father's lined face. It was then that I gave in. Seeing the impossibly strong man that had raised me broken beyond all repair was a humbling experience.

Everything had been set for me to finish my senior year in Gilbert and to live with my brother.

We had just entered the city ten minutes ago and were now nearly to his house. I had visited it one time five years ago when my niece, Katie, was born.

It was a two story, red-brick house that reminded me of something you would see in the Lytle Lake area of Abilene. Houses on hills, deep Plantation style porches, white columns and lots of windows. The windows confused me. The weather was too cold for windows that large, but I didn't say anything about it.

He pulled my truck around the back to the garage, before getting out without saying a word to me. I sighed and exited as well, rounding it so I could grab two of my boxes while my brother got my suit case and guitar case. All that was left was my amp, second guitar and two more boxes.

The house was dark and quiet._ His wife and kids must not be here. There would be Spongebob blaring out of the T.V. if they were._

Josh didn't bother with lights, as there was enough naturally to see by. He led me up the stairs to the attic room I had been assigned to, dropping the things he held onto the full brass bed. I winced at the squeak it emitted. He had to take the boxes from me so that I could get up the small, steep stair case that opened into the floor of the room. He placed the boxes on the floor more carefully.

"The fan works," Josh said. I jumped at the sudden sound of his voice. "I installed it last week 'cause it can get hot up here, even in the winter." He looked away from me and we stood in silence for a moment.

"Thanks," I replied. It came out rougher than I would have liked.

"You start unpacking. I'll get the rest," he ordered, back to being sullen.

I didn't contest his decision and to show him I meant to no longer cause a problem, I pulled out my knife and cut the packing tape on the top box.

He was gone when I looked up.

The room was small and the roof sloping. I could stand up straight in most of it, except right where the trap door was, but I had to sit down to get out anyway so it didn't matter.

The bed had dark blue sheets and pillows, though I added my favorite pillow with deer spangled case to the pile. The comforter was the same color as the sheets. There was an old-fashioned side table to the left of the bed, so I moved it to the other side. Across from the bed was a roll-top desk and chair just under the small window. An old bookshelf that leaned slightly took up space beside the desk. There was no closet in the room. Instead, I was going to have to make do with the dresser with the built-in mirror that sat just to the right of the trapdoor.

I spent the next several hours unpacking. My brother didn't offer to help for which I was grateful. Most of my things fit. I had trouble with my letter jacket and black Stetson, so I draped the jacket over the desk chair and left the hat on top of the dresser. The bookshelf was now stocked with my history books, most of which focused on the Civil War and the two World Wars, and my few novels. And my guitars, a Fender GC12 and a Gibson Les Paul, fit nicely on their stand on the other side of the desk. Though I had to shove my amp under the bed.

By the time my sister-in-law, Jennifer, called me for supper I was almost finished.

My brother's family sat around a table for meals, a novel idea for me. I thought fondly for a moment of the bar in my mother's kitchen, my father and I on one side and my mother on the other, near the stove so that she could dish out seconds easily. The only times we sat at a table were for holidays, and only the women and gentlemen did that. The kids and the older men would all gather in the sitting room, crowded around coffee tables and watching football or bull riding.

My thoughts snapped back to the present, my eyes a little stingy at the remembrance of my mother, by the sound of the chair beside me being pulled out.

"I'm gonna' sit by you, Jasper," my niece informed me. She was tall for her age, five, with an oval face, big blue eyes and yellow-blonde hair that waved more dramatically at the ends than it did closer to her crown.

"Okay." I replied. My accent was horribly thick compared to hers. She giggled.

"Mommy, he talks funny!" Katie exclaimed happily, teasing me.

"Be nice Katie," Jenny reprimanded firmly. Her daughter had taken after her in looks and in manner.

"Yeah, be nice," I teased, sticking out my tongue. She giggled behind her hands.

My brother walked in, his arms full of Weston, my nephew. The little boy's hair was dark with left over water from his bath and he was in pjs that had tigers on them. He was clearly tired by the way his eyelids were drooping. He too resembled his mother in appearance but the little I had seen and heard of his attitude reminded me of my brother.

Josh pulled a bottle out of the fridge, his son snatching it eagerly as soon as it was in reach.

"I'm going to put Wes down. I'll be right back," my brother told his wife before leaving the room.

He returned shortly, taking his place at the table. His dark hair and eyes were a stark contrast to the rest of those at the table. He lead grace and began serving.

We were having spaghetti and meatballs. The meatballs, I could tell, were homemade but the sauce was store bought. Just one more thing for me to miss about home. Silence reigned at the table for a good while. I kept my head down but could see Jenny glaring at Josh from the corner of my eye. I could also see Katie looking back and forth between her parents and me with a confused look on her face.

Finally my brother spoke up. "You've been enrolled at Gilbert High. They expect you to be there by eight so that they can set up your schedule. I expect you to be back here every day after school to help Jenny with the kids and the chores. Or, you can get a job. And on the weekends you will help with the yard work, no exceptions."

"What about baseball and church choir?" I asked in a slight panic.

"There is no baseball team at the school here," Josh informed me, having the decency to look sheepish. "And I'm not sure about church choirs; there are only a few churches in town."

I felt my heart plummet. It seemed that removing me from my home was not enough for the universe, now I could no longer play baseball or sing in church either.

My expression must have looked pitiful because Jenny interjected quickly, "I'm sure the school has a choir, Jasper."

I nodded mutely and was silent for the rest of dinner while my brother laid out the rest of his expectations.

After dinner I was wrangled into washing the dishes while Katie was fighting with her mother over going to take a bath. When I finally made it back to my room it was past nine.

I flopped down onto my bed, the brass frame squalled in protest. I groaned in annoyance, having forgotten all about the less than perfect condition of the bed. I was going to have to tighten the bolts soon. With a snort of frustration, I buried my face in the soft navy comforter and fell asleep in my clothes.

**jwjwjw**

I woke up on my own out of habit at six-thirty the next morning. My face was wet with drool and uncomfortably stuck to the equally damp fabric of my blanket. For a moment, I forgot where I was, and sat up quickly, setting off my new bed's squeaky frame. I ended up startling myself badly enough to fall off the bed completely, smashing the back of my head against the floor.

For about three minutes I lay on my back bemoaning my existence and listening for any sounds of activity on the floors below. After recognizing that no one had woken from the clatter I made, I gave myself the only pep talk I could come up with on such short notice.

_Suck it up Whitlock. Get it together. You're a fucking Texan, you can take it._

Now properly 'Jazzed Up', I sat up slowly and took stock of myself.

My face was still wet and squished-feeling, my head was sufficiently throbbing, and my clothes felt awkward on me due to sleeping in them all night.

Sighing, I shuffled my way to the dresser on my knees so I could look in the mirror.

My cheek and forehead were red on the left side and my hair was flattened to the side of my head.

I collected some fresh under things and a shirt and made my way downstairs to the bathroom for a shower. Once under the hot spray I allowed myself to relax. I took at least half an hour before deciding to make good use of my time.

After drying off and brushing my teeth, I regarded myself in the mirror. My normally fluffy golden hair was sticking up erratically from my running a towel over it. I had pale blue eyes that my mother always called 'lovely'. I'm tall enough I suppose, though I knew taller guys in Texas. Years of playing baseball had given me a physique that I could be relatively proud of, though I'm not vain enough to stand posing in front of a mirror for long.

I dressed quickly, wearing the same jeans that I had yesterday and last year's baseball shirt over a black long sleeve.

I made my way back up to my room and saw that it was seven-thirty already according to my small alarm clock. I grabbed my new, and relatively empty, backpack off the floor and my hat off the hook on the wall that I had found yesterday evening and rushed back down stairs. Then I rushed back up again because I'd forgotten my wallet and cell phone in my room. I debated for half a second over whether or not to bring my guitar too, so I did. When I scrambled back down the steep ladder I almost ran right into my brother. I was able to rear back just in time and only received one odd look from him before he carried on down the hall. I followed him until we reached the kitchen, where he took a seat at the table and I headed to the door.

"Have a nice day," Jenny commanded playfully from her spot in front of the stove.

"Thanks," I replied, trying to sound sincere. I gave a little wave before exiting.

I almost ran right back in because it was colder than a well digger's ass outside. However, I was able to restrain my Southerner instincts and I just gave an all body shiver instead. If possible, my truck seemed even colder. I could feel the freezing leather through my jeans. With my teeth a chattering, I started the car and pulled out into the alleyway.

My brother had given me directions to the school the night before so I found it relatively easily. I parked in front of the main entrance, guessing that the councilor's office would be close by.

Inside it was warm and quiet. A statue of a jaguar, the school mascot, was roped off in the middle of the spacious atrium. To my left, an older woman sat at a small kiosk with a sign overhead that read: Information Center.

"Excuse me, ma'am," I began, taking off my hat. "I'm a new student here. I was wondering if you could direct me to the councilor's office please."

"Just down that hall, second door on the left," she replied disinterestedly, pointing out the hallway behind me. She turned her attention to her computer again. I thanked her anyway.

A lady with graying hair and big teeth greeted me when I walked in.

"I'm looking for a Mrs. Sibert, ma'am," I informed her; looking at the paperwork my brother had given me. The secretary pointed out the third door down a shorter hallway.

"If she's not on the phone you can go right in," I was told.

Mrs. Sibert was not on the phone when I peeked around the corner and she looked up from her computer almost as soon as I set foot in the office.

"I'm Jasper Whitlock, ma'am," was as far as I got before she waved me into a chair excitedly.

"Yes, yes, we've been expecting you. We don't get many new students this late in the year. Welcome to Gilbert High. Now, your brother has already done all the preliminary paperwork. All we need to do is set up your schedule. I've looked at your transcript already, and all you really need, as far a core classes, are English IV and Government. Would you like Advanced Placement?"

It went on like this for about half an hour. I ended up in entirely AP classes except for ROTC and Choir. Because I didn't need four years of math or science at Gilbert, I was able to enroll in the same history classes that I had started in Abilene.

Once everything was set up and printed out, I was handed a map and a schedule.

"First period will start in about ten minutes. You can take this time to look around if you like. If any teachers give you a hard time in the halls just tell them you're new and they'll let you alone," the secretary told me as she handed me my papers. I thanked her and stepped out into the main hall again. She had marked a big red 'X' over the councilor's office and wrote 'you are here' below it.

I rolled my eyes, tucked the pages into my backpack, and headed back outside to move my truck to the student lot across the street.

_Welcome to Hell, Whitlock._

**JWJWJW**

**AN: I hope you like it.**


	3. First Sight

**Sunset**

**Chapter Two- First Sight**

**Disclaimer: Not mine. I don't own Flight of the Conchords either. If you don't know who they are, go YouTube them now. Before you even read this. . . . okay maybe after you read.**

**A/N: I found out that Minnesota actually does have a city called Gilbert, though it isn't as close to the Canadian border as the Gilbert in this story. So yeah. Also, something really weird happened to the formatting last chapter and it underlined, bolded, and italicized everything. To the three of you that struggled through the two-thousand some odd words before I fixed it and STILL liked it enough to review, THANK YOU SO MUCH. I'm very happy with ya'll.**

**I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**JWJWJW**

Abilene has two high schools, Abilene High and Cooper High. My graduating class at Abilene High had about five hundred people in it. Gilbert High's senior class this year was a quarter that.

The parking lot was already pretty full by the time I made it over there. It was almost time for school to start so the students were all arriving in droves. Most of the cars in the lot, I noticed, were white or silver, adding to my theory that the city was draining color from life. There were a handful of black cars, two yellow ones and single red van parked near the back. None of them were especially fancy; there were a lot of Jettas and Civics but not many trucks and Jeeps like I was used to. In fact there were three trucks including mine. I counted.

There was a buildup of grey slush that had been shuffled through and cleared away to form neat little pathways around the parking lot. I probably shouldn't have worn boots. At least, not the cowboy kind.

At the crosswalk, I joined a large group that was discussing their Christmas breaks. They were either ignoring me or they just didn't notice me enough to care. Once on the main part of campus, I dug out my schedule and map, pursuing it for my first class, JROTC.

JROTC was located in a wing separate from the main part of the school. The hall was long with a low ceiling and several missing lights. The clock that stuck out from the side of the wall didn't work and the one water fountain had rusty spigots and knobs. In a glass case just outside the class room door was a display of several awards and pictures of previous classes in uniform.

The classroom itself was in a much better state than the hallway. The lights all worked, there was thin blue carpet in place of the puke tan color of the tile outside, and the clocks were ticking loudly. Black desks and chairs were lined out carefully in four rows of ten and more desks were stacked together at the back of the room. Beside the extra desks there was a door with a small plaque that read: Colonel Dunlap.

Some students were milling around, sitting on desks and standing, one boy that was telling a story. Loud laughter erupted from the group. None of them looked like the helpful types, so I went straight to the door at the back and knocked sharply on the wood.

An older gentleman with thin grey hair and wide blue eyes stuck his head out. "Can I help you?"

"Sir, I'm Jasper Whitlock. I'm new to this class," I answered formally, sweeping my hat off again.

"Yes, we've been expecting you. I'm Colonel Dunlap. We've received all your class records from Colonel Pace in Abilene. Unfortunately, this class is Navy JROTC, not Air Force. That means that all of your accomplishments with the AFJROTC program don't count here. You'll be starting over fresh." I could feel the expression on my face sink lower the farther he got in his speech. He noticed too, and smiled politely. "I'll understand if you wish to transfer out of the class instead, but we're happy to have you if you'd like to stay."

"Thank you, sir. I guess I'll stay for now. I don't know what else I could do."

"All right then. I'll have Sergeant Mand get you set up with a book and information on your uniforms. We have practical lessons on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and on early release days. On Tuesday we practice with the rifles and marching, Thursdays is also inspection day, that will be your dress out day, and on Fridays we work out in the gym. You'll need to order your uniforms from the Army Surplus in Virginia. Got all that?"

"Yes, sir."

The rest of the class was a haze of familiarity. Sergeant Mand gave me the information I needed so I could order my uniforms. I was given a JROTC t-shirt that had the mascot and school motto on the back and the navy emblem on the front in the upper left corner. I was told that I could pay for it the next day, so I made a note to tell my brother since I had no money.

The class, it turned out, was made up almost entirely by freshmen. There were three sophomores and then me, the only senior. I was given a seat near the back on the left side which I liked because it was harder for the little freshmen to stare at me.

I got out as quickly as possible when the bell rang, having already stuffed my notes into my backpack five minutes early.

People in the halls gave me a lot of weird looks due to my guitar and cowboy hat. Normally, I wouldn't mind all the attention. In fact, I love attention. I was used to it. Back in Abilene I was one of those Jock/Academic Gods that everyone knew and pretended they liked. I will admit to being a bit of a jackass to some people, but they usually deserved it, I really did try to be friendly to everyone. My natural talent mixed with a fair dose of conceit was one of the reasons why my letter jacket had four 'A's on it and patches all down the arms and on the back. Doing things halfway wasn't my style, so I might as well get credit for how amazing I am. I'm innately a people person. I've always been able to tell how people feel about me and their feelings in general.

The halls were all dark and low ceilinged apparently. It looked as though none of the clocks worked and most of the water fountains were in disrepair. There were no lockers anywhere so everyone was carrying their books and bags around. The class rooms all looked the same on the inside too. The carpet was the same thin blue stuff as in the ROTC hall and the walls were stark white. There were no chalk boards, only dry erase, and the desks were all black with attached chairs.

My second class was European History-AP. In Abilene, the class was taught by Ms. Snow, one of the toughest teachers in the school. She was the only teacher that taught three different AP classes and had a ninety percent pass rate in all of them. She had a cult-like following and some of her students teased that they were 'Snow babies'.

In Gilbert the class was taught by Mr. Armstrong, a tall dark-headed man with big ears and an entertaining disposition. He seemed to be a great fan of England, judging by the posters on his walls.

He gave me the seat right in front of his podium and informed me that the class was just about to kill Napoleon so they were almost right on schedule. We hadn't gotten quite that far in Abilene. He gave a brief review on French Absolutism and then started in on his lecture.

Forty minutes later, my brain felt fried, and not in the pleasant way. The class itself, as in the people not the subject, had a friendly ambiance to it. These were clearly people that all knew each other and liked the class. But the teaching style was dry and extremely anti-French, which, while very funny sometimes, did get old quick.

Armstrong stopped his lecture five minutes before the bell. It seemed like as soon as he said, "you can spend the last bit of class discussing amongst yourselves," that the entire class of twelve surrounded me. I mean, I've always been good at drawing people to me, but this was almost ridiculous.

One particularly brave guy, whose name I wouldn't have been able to remember even if I wanted to, was the first to speak, asking me all sorts of questions. I answered them all, mostly because I didn't want to seem rude. He was shorter than me but had wildly curly brown hair that added inches to his height. He seemed sort of awkward with me, like he was only trying to 'claim' me as a friend before anyone else could. I had run into his sort before, in fact, a lot of people are like that around me for some reason. We chatted briefly about the class, most of his questions revolved around whether or not I had covered this or that back in Texas.

"So you're from Texas huh? Does it snow there much?" he asked.

"A few times a year, where I'm from. Normally in January it will, but it melts pretty quickly. It doesn't stay cold enough to stay frozen for long," I replied.

"Man," he said, bewilderedly. "I can't imagine what that must be like."

"Mostly hot and windy," I said sardonically. He didn't notice my tone.

As the bell rang, I asked if anyone had Choir next with me. One girl, all legs and blonde hair and a trilling laugh, bounced forward quickly and offered to walk with me. I, in turn, carried her books for her. Just because I act like a cocky bastard doesn't mean I can't be a southern gentleman too.

The Choir room, like the others, had the same blue carpet and white walls but the ceiling was higher. Risers were set up, wrapping around the back of the entire room. The teacher was a young woman of average height and wild dark brown hair. She introduced herself as Ms. Duncan and when I told her I was a bass she pointed me in the right direction of where I should sit on the bleachers.

I was at the edges of the bass section and the boy I was seated next to was a baritone. He was taller than me, with blue eyes and vibrantly red hair that fell pin-straight to his chin. His name was Peter Nicholson and he was shy. His voice didn't convey any hesitancy in speaking to me, but the slouch of his shoulders and the way he didn't turn to face me full on spoke volumes. He also had a habit of starting every new conversation with 'hey so'.

When the class was over he asked to see my schedule and told me that he had AP Government with me next and lead me there. It was on the other side of campus and we barely made it in time for the bell.

Government in Gilbert seemed like it would be just as hellish as it had been back home. I hadn't even stayed in the class two days before I demanded to be moved to Economics for first semester. The teacher, Mr. Harmony, whom I would have hated anyway just because of the subject he taught, was the only one to quiz me on how much I knew already. When it became apparent that I not only didn't know but didn't care either, he decided it would be prudent to find a seat for me. This proved to be difficult. The class was packed, not in a way that made it look popular but in a way that made it seem as though every student in the room was only there because there was nowhere else for them to be.

"Ah, yes! You can sit by Alice Cullen over-" he paused, raising his hand to point over the head of his class, "-and she's not here. Odd. I thought I saw her earlier," he finished in a mutter. "Jack Dempsey, raise your hand," he called.

A pale boy in the row against the wall and three seats from the back did so.

"You can sit just behind him then. And now every desk is full." He continued to ramble to himself for several minutes after I had already made my way to my desk.

"Oh, bad luck New Kid," the boy named Jack hissed to me once Harmony began his lesson. "You have to sit by Cullen."

"What's wrong with her?" I asked quietly, leaning my upper body over the desk.

"She's really weird. Like creepy weird. Plus she doesn't talk to anybody, doesn't ever partner up on assignments, teacher's pet. Ya' know, that sort of stuff." He turned back to his notes and said nothing else on the matter.

I looked over at Peter on the other side of the room. He gave me a 'tough luck' shrug.

When class was over, Peter waited for me by the door. "Hey so you want to sit with me and my friends at lunch?" he asked.

"Sure," I replied. I had completely forgotten about the lunch problem and was glad to have someone to sit with.

"Great, I'll introduce you to everyone."

The lunchroom was already packed by the time Peter and I arrived. The whole school ate lunch at the same time apparently. Four lines were set up to go through and they were already swamped with students standing in large clumps instead of lines. Peter led me away from the lines to a table at the back end of the room.

"Hey so, this is Maria's Table," Peter informed him. "She claimed it in freshman year and no one sits here except for our group. Don't sit in her spot either, it annoys her." Peter placed his bag in one of the empty seats on the opposite side from Maria's chair. "You can sit by me today," Peter directed, indicating the chair to his left. "Let's go get some food. The others are probably already in line."

The lunch lines, contrary to the look of them, went very quickly. Unfortunately, the food here seemed to be no better than the standard fare in any other school. I got pizza and fries. Neither looked completely appetizing.

When we got back to the table it was packed. Extra chairs had even been pulled up and everyone was talking loudly and shouting over each other.

"Hey so, guys, this is Jasper, he's new," Peter jumped in. I noticed the blonde girl from earlier and the boy with the crazy hair, whose name was Jessie, according to the binder he had in front of him. "This is Jessie Stanley, Lucy Carmichael," the blonde, "Louis Mallory," a boy with long blond hair and a sneer, "Nettie Houndsman," a small, athletic girl with hair so light it almost looked white, "and Charlotte Cosben," an even smaller girl with gray eyes and ash blonde hair that looked almost blue. I noticed the way that Peter's eyes lingered on her.

"Nice to meet ya'll," I began, sitting down and moving my guitar and backpack to hang on the back of my chair. There were a few twittering laughs from Nettie and Lucy when I said 'ya'll'.

"Hey, so, where's Maria?" Peter asked.

"Sorry," a new voice answered before anyone else could. "I got held up in Art. Hi, I'm Maria." A girl about Charlotte's size moved into my line of vision and folded herself in to her chair. She looked like a porcelain doll despite her clearly Mexican features. The way she smiled at me put me on guard instantly, it was like she were a predator and I her prey.

Raised in a way that made it impossible for me to be rude to a lady, no matter how put off I was, I extended my right hand to shake and whipped my hat off my head with the left. "A pleasure," I said.

"The pleasure's all mine," she crooned in reply. Her voice was practically a purr. In order to not encourage her further, I removed my hand from hers quickly and gave her a stiff smile. Her expression dropped a little but she recovered it nicely. "I hear you're from Texas, I used to live in San Angelo. Is football still like a religion?" The tense atmosphere that had settled over the table disappeared.

I laughed lightly. "Oh no, it's much more important." This caused Maria to laugh, a sound like wind chimes. Everyone else broke into nervous laughter as well.

"Hey so, do you actually play that or is it just decoration?" Peter asked, indicating my guitar.

I reached around behind me and pulled my guitar around. "It's just for the ladies," I said, waggling my eyebrows.

"Seriously?" Jessie demanded.

"Naw, I really play. Got any requests?" I asked, strumming lightly. I looked around the room as I spoke and that's when I saw them.

There were five of them, three girls and two boys, all completely different but exactly alike at the same time. They entered though the side door and sat at the deserted table right beside it. There was a blonde girl, tall and statuesque, with the kind of body that super models dreamed of, and hair that fell like golden waves to the middle of her back. She was clutching the arm of the larger of the two boys. He had dark curly hair and the musculature of a serious weight lifter. Another girl, this one with straight dark brown hair was no less gorgeous than the first, though she had less self-importance in her demeanor. The boy that walked beside her was like an opposite of the first, lanky, not bulky, with a boyish face and messy reddish-gold hair. The last girl was the smallest, about the same size as Maria and Charlotte, but infinitely more graceful and beautiful. She was pixie-like in appearance, thin with small features, and had inky black hair that looked like it was in the process of growing back from being shaved because it stuck up in every direction. Despite their different appearances, they all had the same pale complexion, the palest of any of the people I'd seen so far in this colorless town, and deep, bruise-like shadows under their eyes, as if they were all recovering from broken noses. But their noses, all of their features, were perfectly straight, angular almost.

It was hard to decide which of them was the most beautiful, even the guys, though obviously male, had a sense of beauty about them.

"Uh oh, looks like Jasper has discovered the Cullens," Jessie Stanley's teasing voice managed to rouse me from my thoughts. I looked away from the ethereal creatures and focused on Jessie, who was smirking in a rather unsettling way.

"The Cullens?" I asked stupidly, decidedly curious but attempting to not sound that way.

"Yeah, they're Dr. and Mrs. Cullen's kids. That's Emmett, Bella, and Alice Cullen and Rosalie and Edward Hale. Rosalie and Edward are foster kids but the others are adopted. Emmett, Alice and Rosalie are seniors. Bella and Edward are juniors," Jessie informed me, pointing them out individually.

I laughed, "Man! Five teenagers in one house at the same time, I can just imagine."

Nervous laughter engulfed the table again.

"Yeah, plus they're all together too. Rosalie's with Emmett and Bella's with Edward. Alice is single but no one at this school is good enough for her," Louis sneered. I wondered if his face was naturally that way and entertained the idea of asking. I brushed it away though; I didn't want to make enemies on the first day of school.

"What does it matter? She's not even that pretty," Maria said imperiously, glancing over at the table and sucking her teeth. I looked back as well to see what would have caused such a reaction. I saw Alice looking at Maria with a raised eye brow and the 'bitch please' look, almost as if she had heard Maria's comment from the other side of the room.

Maria gasped in indignation. "Oh no, she did not! I'll slap that bitch silly."

"I don't know. I'd probably put my money on Alice, she looks like the type to fight dirty," I replied, chuckling at the affronted look on Maria's face.

"I'd pay to see that fight," Jessie chimed in, grinning toothily at Maria. "Two sexy ladies wrestling in the snow," he trailed off briefly, "hot."

I shook my head furiously. "Nuh uh, make it on the beach in the rain, while they're wearing white," I replied. There was a chorus of appreciative groans from the guys. On the other side of the room I saw Alice shake her head and turn back to her family.

"I'd sell tickets to that shit!" Louis said, smiling for once. Something about him annoyed me but I couldn't quite place it.

I grinned at Maria, "what do ya' say?"

"You're all pigs," she giggled, slapping my arm from across the table.

"Don't be too mad, I'll sing you a song. Do ya'll know 'The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room)' by Flight of the Conchords?" I asked, already strumming out the tune. Peter laughed and nodded, but the others had dumbass looks on their faces. "Well you've missed out, let me tell you. Here we go:

_Lookin' 'round the room,  
I can tell that you  
are the most beautiful girl  
in the room.  
In the whole wide room.  
And when you're on the street,  
depending on the street,  
I'll bet you are definitely  
in the top three  
good looking girls on the street.  
Oh, yeah,  
depending on the street._

As I got farther along in the song I noticed I had the attention of most of the cafeteria. Even the Cullens, who before had not seemed to pay attention to anything other than when Alice and Maria had looked at each other, were looking over at me. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the way Alice was smiling. It wasn't an amused smile, like those of her siblings. It was knowing and . . . something else. I couldn't explain it. I looked away, turning back to Maria to finish the song.

_You're so beautiful,  
like a tree,  
or a high class prostitute,  
you're so beautiful,  
you could be a part time model.  
But you'd probably still have to keep your normal job.  
A part time model.  
Spending part of your time modeling  
and part of your time next to me.  
And the rest of your time  
doing your normal job._

There was a round of applause as I finished up the instrumental. I hammed it up, standing and bowing, before telling everyone to clear out. "Show's over, finish your lunches," I called.

After that, lunch disintegrated into conversations about who was seeing who, who was doing who, and whether or not the captain of the soccer team was gay. I looked over at him briefly and could already tell that he was.

Near the end of the thirty-five minutes allotted, a sudden hush fell over the section of the cafeteria that we were in. I had been strumming on my guitar absentmindedly, when I felt someone tap my shoulder. I looked up, expecting to see Peter trying to catch my attention, right into a pair of golden-brown eyes that belonged to none other than Alice Cullen. I crashed my feet to the floor from where they had been resting on the edge of the table and sat up straight, taking my hat off again.

"Hi," she greeted in a voice like ringing bells, "I'm Alice, and you're Jasper. Welcome to Gilbert." She offered her hand to shake. In a daze I reciprocated the action. She was even more gorgeous up close. I recoiled immediately upon touching her hand but she held on with a surprisingly strong grip. It was like I was gripping an ice cube, but without the melted water coming away on my hand.

"Hi," I replied, bewildered and wary. She didn't seem that threatening but the way she was looking at me was a bit more than confusing.

"We have English together," she said, releasing my hand and glancing at the schedule lying on the table by my tray of food. I fought the urge to wipe my cold hand on my jeans out of habit. Her intense eyes turned back to me. "You can sit by me if you like," she offered, leaning in a little. I could smell her she was so close, and boy did she smell good. Sweet, like the way candy tasted. I breathed deeply.

Now, I know when I'm being flirted with, and in most cases I can respond rather easily, but I was finding it a little hard at the moment. "Uh, sure, thanks," I croaked finally.

She beamed. "Great, see you then." Then with a wave and a quick twirl she was walking away.

"Dude," Peter said lowly.

"I know," I agreed.

I suddenly couldn't wait for seventh period.

**JWJWJW**

**A/N: Only getting three reviews for last chapter is ridiculous. I got twice that for the PREFACE. I want at least ten for this chapter. It's the longest thing I've ever written and I want props. No third chapter until I get ten reviews.**

**Man, I'm exhausted. But I still have five Government essays to write and I have to babysit tonight. Plus I'm working tomorrow.**


	4. Overly Eager

**Sunset**

**Chapter Three- Overly Eager**

**Disclaimer: Not mine, nor is **_**Psychology: An Introduction, Alice in Wonderland, Macbeth, or Julius Caesar.**_

**A/N: Man! Ya'll totally delivered. THIRTY-TWO REVIEWS. All of those that reviewed: You guys are BOSS. On that note, sorry this took so long. I don't like to work over Christmas break, so. Yeah. Happy New Year and Happy MLK Day. I didn't have school today so I'm pretty happy. It gave me a chance to finish this anyway.**

**This chapter is more dialogue than the last chapters have been. So, yeah.**

**JWJWJW**

Unfortunately, I couldn't go straight to seventh period after lunch. I had US History and Psychology first. None of my new friends had either class with me.

When the bell rang we all got up and made our way back to the main school building. Maria, Nettie and Lucy were in a tight circle whispering to each other and glancing back at me. Except for Maria, she wasn't looking at me at all; in fact, Maria was now refusing to speak to me, apparently because I had seemed overly eager when speaking to Alice.

"I was just being friendly. _She_ was just being friendly," I defended, her cold shoulder making me feel as if I had done something wrong. She walked off in the other direction, presumably to her class, acting as if she hadn't heard me. I huffed and Peter chuckled behind me. "What's her deal? She's acting as if I belong to her or something," I demanded, turning to Peter.

He looked up from talking to Charlotte, whom I had just noticed, and followed Maria's progress around the corner. "Hey so, for one thing, Alice Cullen isn't friendly. And for another that's just the way Maria is," he informed me, giving me an apologetic grin.

"What do you mean?" I asked, wondering at both of his comments.

Charlotte was the one to answer in her whispery voice. "Maria wants you. You're a new shiny plaything for her and the fact that you showed more interest in someone else pissed her off."

"I didn't mean anything by it!" I contested. After a short pause I added, "And I didn't show more interest."

"I'm not saying you did. That's just how Maria sees it. I wouldn't expect a boy to understand anyway. Bye Peter, Jasper," she waved and walked into a class room.

"Bye," Peter called after her, a goofy smile on his face. He was so obvious that I was getting sick. I raised an eyebrow in his direction, deciding to briefly get over my problems in order to tease my new friend about his. "What?" he asked defensively.

I turned on my heel and walked back the way we had come calling back, "Nothing."

"Aw come on, what?" he whined following after me. "Hey so, do you even know where you're going?"

"Not a clue," I replied, pursuing my map for the class room I was supposed to be in.

"Come on, you're going the wrong way," Peter said, grabbing my schedule from my hand. "It's right next door to Harmony's class."

"Oh, thanks." I followed him silently for a moment. "So," I trailed suggestively, "you and Charlotte."

He froze instantly, his face turning almost as red as his hair, and turned on me sharply. "Don't say anything," he ordered.

"I won't," I replied, a little disappointed that he didn't deny it. I could've had some fun with it.

He looked me in the eyes for a long while before nodding and handing my schedule back to me. "I need to go or I'll be late. It's just around the corner."

I nodded and he left.

AP U.S. History was my favorite class ever. Nothing could ever make my day happier than to sit in a room and hear about the glory of The United States. Maybe it makes me a true-blue red neck, but I don't care. I smiled when I stepped into the room. There's just a feeling that an U.S. History classroom has. I can't even describe it, it just _is_.

The teacher was Mr. Maynard, a young guy with long brown hair and a beard. He was fresh out of college and this was his first teaching job so he wasn't expecting a high pass rate on the exam but at least the class wasn't boring. It was full of juniors; a few of them were pleasant and introduced themselves. The class was currently in the 1930s, leading up to WWII, one of my favorites. The lecture was followed by a short video clip and then we were left to our own devices for the last ten minutes of class.

Previous to lunch, I had been most looking forward to Psychology class. I had always enjoyed trying to figure out how people worked. I had taken Sociology last semester, and though interesting, it lacked the draw I had been hoping for. Psychology was bound to be better.

I found the classroom easily and on my own, the first time I had done so all day. It boosted my confidence level back up to just below average.

To my disappointment, this class was meeting for the first time so it was just the usual meet and great bull crap that all teachers pull at the beginning of the year. We did get our books: old paperback copies of _Psychology: An Introduction_, by Lahey. I amused myself by reading the first chapter until the end of class.

A surprising jolt of fear and anticipation shot to my gut when the bell rang, causing me to take pause. I packed my new text away into my still mostly empty backpack slowly, wondering at my racing heart. I calmed myself down quickly by swallowing several times. It mostly worked.

For some reason, the halls seemed extra crowded, like I was fighting my way up a fast moving stream. I felt like it was taking me a long time to reach the class room, which was only around the corner from my last class, but when I actually did arrive there weren't many people there, not even Alice. I stepped back out into the hall quickly to check the room number and sighed when I realized that I was in the right place.

"Overly eager dumbass," I muttered to myself.

"Who's overly eager?"

I didn't know that sheer will power could be so strong because, somehow, I managed to keep the girlish shriek that wanted to escape from my throat at bay. I did, however, attempt to jump and turn around at the same time, which ended with a graceless stumbling maneuver in which I almost smacked my head against Alice's. And that's hard to do because Alice was tiny.

"Nothing!" I said immediately, realizing too late that my answer doesn't match her question.

And of course, she just stood there and smirked and just looked like . . . wow. She also looked a bit disappointed, like she was expecting more and I just didn't deliver. It was a horrible look for her face, it made me feel like a complete asshole and I had no idea what I did (or didn't do) to put it there.

"What's with that look?" I demanded, trying to appear less ruffled as I stood up straight again.

"What look? I don't have a look," she replied, grinning. And just like that the look was gone and I felt like a dumbass again. Her teeth were showing and they were so perfectly straight and startlingly white that they seemed sort of _unnatural._ I looked away quickly after noticing that I'd been staring for more than six seconds, speaking of unnatural.

"Nothing," I repeated. I looked around the room and spotted an older gentleman sitting at a large desk in front of the white board. He was completely bald but had a full white beard. He had his very long legs propped up on the desk and he was reading a novel, his reading glasses perched on the end of his nose.

"That's Mr. P," Alice informed me as she walked around me slowly. "Do you still want to sit with me?" she asked.

"Yes," I managed, her hand was on my elbow and I could feel how cold it was through my shirt. For some reason though, the fact that she was touching me made my neck and face very hot. "Uh, thanks."

She gave me a chipper "Sure," and pranced off so gracefully that my chest felt tight just watching.

I shook my head a little as I approached Mr. P's desk. I stood in front of it expectantly but he didn't look up from his book. After about half a minute of staring at the clock above the white board in silence, I quietly cleared my throat. Mr. P looked at me over the rim of his reading glasses flatly. He held up one finger and then looked back at his book. After a few seconds he turned the page, picked up a baseball card from his desk and slipped it between the pages.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Whitlock," Mr. P greeted me; I didn't bother asking how he knew my name. This school was ridiculously tiny and he had a roll sheet out in front of him. My name was the last on the list and it was highlighted.

"Good afternoon, sir," I replied.

"I like your hat," Mr. P told me, quite seriously. He opened a red folder on his desk that held a seating chart.

"Thank you," I returned, a little warily. He nodded absentmindedly.

"Ms. Cullen," he started, peering around me.

"Yes sir?" she asked, looking the picture of beautiful innocence at her desk in the back. I had to look away.

"Bring one of the Lit. Books up here please."

I tried to not look down when I felt her brush my arm but it was sort of impossible. She handed the book to Mr. P, one tiny hand supporting it. I had the urge to reach out and touch her hand, to cover it with mine.

"Thank you Ms. Cullen," Mr. P said with perfect politeness. She nodded and smiled, without showing her teeth this time, her golden eyes squinting. She turned and went back to her desk. "Have you read _Macbeth_, Mr. Whitlock?" Mr. P asked while he wrote my name in the Lit. book and added the book number to a list that he had on the back of the seating chart.

"Yes, sir. My class finished it before Christmas break," I replied. He held the book out to me and I accepted it.

"What did you think of it?" he asked, crossing his hands under his chin.

Honestly, I thought it sucked. _Macbeth is a pansy and his wife is a maniac._ "I preferred _Julius Caesar."_

Mr. P nodded. "Well, we have just finished _Macbeth_ as well and are preparing to start our literary analysis projects. I have a list of books here that you can choose from. You need to have it read by March and you will be expected to write a five to seven page paper over one of the themes central to the story. In order to help with writing the paper, our class will be practicing with _Macbeth_. We'll be working in partners." I took the list from him and pursued it quickly. I hadn't read any of the books listed before. "If you would please find a seat Mr. Whitlock, class can get started. Sit anywhere you like," Mr. P added, standing and making his way around his desk.

"Of course, sir. Thank you," I replied. Alice was sitting in the back and the seats directly in front of her and to her left were both open. I sat to her left.

As soon as I sat down, she thrust a piece of notebook paper at me. "Here, you'll need this. I hope you don't mind college ruled."

"Uh, no, I don't mind. Thanks."

"Sure."

I was a little confused as to what I would need the paper for, but not for long. Mr. P announced that the class was now going to journal about our holiday breaks. He insisted on at least one page. This seemed like a common occurrence in this class because no one threw a fit over it. In fact, it was apparently an invitation to socialize because the entire class began to talk while they wrote.

"We journal every week," Alice said, startling me out of my reverie.

I tried to think of something to say but all that came out was a lame, "Oh." She smiled at me in that infuriating way again though. I started to write something aimlessly about how I had moved over the break and said goodbye to Texas. "Um, what book are you reading for the analysis project?" I asked finally, wishing I were less lame.

"Oh, um, I've already read all of them. I just have to pick one when the time comes for the project," she replied, looking up from her writing. She was smirking and making me feel like an idiot again. I was struck again by the beauty of her angular face and alabaster skin. She looked back down at her paper.

"Uh, wow. Did you have one in mind?" I took a glance at her paper. Over half the page was already filled with her spiky yet elegant script; she was in the process of drawing an elaborate snow ball fight in the margins. It was an impressive scene.

She didn't look up when she answered this time. "_Alice in Wonderland_, I guess."

I chuckled and she looked up at me. Her eyes were bright and dancing and she was biting her bottom lip and yet smiling at the same time.

"I see that you appreciate irony."

I couldn't think of anything to reply with so I just smiled and nodded. _Fucking pull it together man._ She seemed to find this amusing rather than lame and stupid though and simply turned back to her journaling. I watched her profile for a few minutes, noticing things like the way her short hair curled slightly behind her ears, and that she was left handed.

"You have about ten minutes left," she said without looking up after five minutes of my stalkerish staring.

I could feel myself blushing as I turned away and hurriedly began to write some tripe about Christmas so that I could fill up space. True to her prediction, approximately ten minutes later Mr. P went around and collected the papers.

Afterward, he stood at the front of the class room behind a podium and called for everyone's attention. "Welcome back seniors," he began. A girl on the opposite side of the room whooped and everyone laughed. "Today we will be starting our analysis of _Macbeth_. I hope you can remember some of it." Another round of chuckles followed his statement. "You will do this project in partners, not in groups. There's an even number in class so no one should be left out. You will spend the rest of the class period discussing with you partner the theme that you will be writing on. The next two days of class time will be dedicated to writing the paper so we will be meeting in the upstairs computer lab. If you do not finish by the end of class Wednesday you will have to complete the assignment outside of class. It is due Friday." He paused, looking around the room for a long moment. There was complete silence as he scrutinized us. As for the students, they all seemed poised to run as they lifted out of their seats a little or shifted their weight to the balls of their feet. I looked sideways at Alice and noted with relief that her position seemed unchanged. "You may now choose your partners."

His words were like the starting gun at a track race. The room exploded into motion with a sharp crack and a whiff of gunpowder. I jolted back a little as the boy in front of me seemingly flew out of his seat. There was a large group of people clamoring around the girl that had whooped earlier, several others stood off to the side watching the 'action'.

I looked at Alice curiously, she smiled at me amusedly. "She's the best writer in class. It's a bit of a scramble to get her." She shifted in her seat, her face didn't change but her eyes dulled a little as if she was making a decision. She stood up and closed the distance between us, perching on the side of my desk and crossing her ankles demurely. "So, do you want to partner with me?" she asked, all smiles. It should be illegal to look that beautiful.

It took me a moment to focus and understand that she spoke actual English. "Wha-? Yeah, sure. I mean, you don't have a usual partner or anything?" I mentally slapped myself for what felt like the eightieth time in just that one class.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Alice said, cocking her head to one side.

I shook my head. "No, no, I want to. I want to. Uh, what theme should we write about?"

The last twenty minutes of class, Alice and I discussed the various merits and draw backs of unchecked ambition. When the bell rang, she grabbed my arm about the elbow. "Walk me to my car?" she asked, her eyes like two golden beacons.

"Sure," I mumbled dumbly, stuffing my things into my backpack pell-mell. "Do you think we'll be able to finish by Wednesday?"

She shook her head enthusiastically. "There's no way. The next two days will be for research." I don't know if I imagined it or not, but I thought I saw a sly look pass over her face. "We'll have to get together Thursday to type it up."

I nodded, ignoring the lump in my throat. "Cool."

She chattered away as we made our way to the student parking lot. People were shooting me weird looks again, but this time I attributed it to the elfin creature on my arm. She danced along beside me, seemingly oblivious to the stares.

It was still arctic outside. The clouds were even more oppressive and darker now than they were this morning. Had so little time actually passed? This day felt like a lifetime.

Sometime during the school day, janitors must have spread salt because there was no ice on the sidewalks or in the parking lot walk ways. Alice led me along the paths to the fanciest car in the lot, a silver Volvo, the motor already running. _That figures. Looks and money._

I leaned against the car beside it briefly, looking down at her. She stared back solidly so I looked away. I sighed and looked at my truck in the next row over.

"Don't want to go home?" she asked, leaning forward. I shook my head and winced. I thought about the screaming toddler and chatty kindergartener that I would be babysitting. "That bad, huh?"

I smiled a little then. "See you tomorrow," I said, turning to go. She grabbed my hand with her ice cold fingers.

"Hey wait, you might need this." To my surprise, she reached out and pulled my pen right out of my pocket and wrote something on my hand. The pen was replaced just as quickly as it had been taken. "Call me if you need anything," she chirped. Then she turned and got in the car without so much as a 'by your leave'. The Volvo pulled out while I was still standing there. I could see Alice waving from the passenger seat and her foster brother, Edward, on the driver's side with a pinched look on his face. I looked down at my hand and saw seven numbers in Alice's unique script, followed by her name and a little heart.

In a daze, I made my way to my truck and somehow ended up back at my brother's house without injuring myself or anyone else. My high was snatched away brutally by my sister-in-law as I walked in the door.

"How was school?" she asked, sounding less flustered than she looked. She handed Wes a bottle and he ran off with it, screaming loudly.

"Fine," I replied warily, dropping my back pack on the table.

"Oh, don't leave that there. Wes'll get it. Take your stuff upstairs real quick. I need you to watch Wes while I go get Katie. Then I'm going to swing by the grocery store. We're almost out of milk. It's like Def. Con. 1 around here when we don't have milk." She ran out of the room quickly and scooped Wes away from climbing on the coffee table. He immediately started to scream again. "He hasn't had a nap and he hasn't pooped all day, he's been saving it for you." She said that with a touch of humor that I think only mothers can have. She passed the squirming child to me. "Have fun."

Then she left, shutting the back door behind her. Wes nearly flew out of my arms and ran for the door. He tried opening it and when he couldn't he fell to the floor, face down and screamed some more.

"Great," I muttered. I looked at my hand again, mustered a small wince/grin combo, and moved forward to pick up the devil I was watching.

**JWJWJW**

**A/N: Review. Do it now. Don't make me threaten ya'll again.**


	5. Predator and Prey

**Sunset**

**Chapter Three- Predator and Prey**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

**A/N: Dudes, this chapter kicked my ass. I thought I would never get it finished. Here I am, almost at the end of my first semester of college and just now updating. I'm very sorry to keep you all waiting for so long. I made it an extra humongous chapter just to try and make up for it. All of you that reviewed are amazing. Anyone who added this story or me to their favorites/alerts but didn't review, you guys are slightly less amazing but still appreciated. **

**Enjoy the show.**

**JWJWJW**

In Texas my bedroom window had been wide and tall, right in the middle of the wall and taking up at least half of the wall space. It had faced east, so the rising sun woke me every morning. When I looked out there was an empty field with a mesquite tree near the center, its branches dipped low so that the leaves brushed the tall grass. In a wide circle around the trunk the grass would be pressed flat where the deer had slept the night before. Sometimes a flock of wild turkeys would pass through, upwards of twenty in one group, and would gobble and feint at each other for hours.

The window in Gilbert was small and rectangular, facing out over the front of the house. I could see the roof over the porch and the roofs of the rest of the houses on the street and the steel gray sky.

I sighed and looked down from the window, focusing instead on unplugging my laptop. The screen dulled. I picked up the computer and took it with me to my bed. It was nearing six o'clock now and was growing dark outside. Jenny had just returned home ten minutes ago with my niece and new school supplies in tow (there were even a few spirals for me), and I had been allowed sanction in my attic until supper time.

I sat on my bed, ignoring the protest of the frame, and sighed. I felt unnaturally tired, but three hours with my nephew would do that to anyone.

**jwjwjw**

Weston bawled loudly in my ear when I picked him up, then, smashing his palm against my face and pushing me away roughly, he leapt out of my arms and took off running to the living room. I didn't follow him immediately this time and I could hear him snuffling and shuffling around the in the next room morosely.

I found his bottle abandoned under the kitchen table, probably having rolled there when he ran to the door. I crawled under the table and retrieved it, hitting my head on the underside when I was backing out. Wes paused his piteous whining in the next room and giggled cutely. Rubbing my head as I went, I took the bottle to the boy. He accepted it quickly; looking up at me innocently with his red-rimmed eyes, and then threw the bottle at me. It connected harshly with my forehead and I was barely able to restrain myself from grabbing the child forcefully and shaking him.

I resisted, clinching my hands into fists, and instead watched from the floor as he ran, screaming gleefully, around the living room and kitchen.

Three hours later, I felt like clawing my eyes out with shrimp forks and stuffing them in my ears.

**jwjwjw **

_At least I didn't have to change any diapers._

With a lazy hand I opened up my email window. There was only one, from my dad asking if I was set up. I deleted it. If he really wanted to know he could call. Gilbert did have phones.

I flopped back, deciding firmly that I would tighten the bolts on my bed this weekend, leaving my laptop balanced on my thighs.

For a long minute I just stared at the ceiling, not thinking about anything in particular. When my nose itched, I reached up to scratch it, catching a black blur out of the corner of my eye. I focused on it confusedly. Recognizing it as Alice's phone number, I sat up in a flash. I had honestly forgotten all about it during my tenure with babysitting and seeing it now caused a pleasant reaction.

I pulled out my cell phone and found the contacts menu, entering Alice's information with rapt attention, taking care to get all the numbers correct. And then I stared at it. For a brief and insane moment I struggled with whether or not to let my phone dial it out, thankfully my logic won out. Because really, what would I say when she answered? I didn't have anything to talk about, I couldn't think of a question valid enough to justify calling her at supper time.

_I would have probably ended up chickening out anyway, breathing heavily on the other side of the line like a stalker or something._

I shook my head and pushed the back button, ending up on my home screen again. I dropped the phone onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling, my thoughts still swirling around Alice Cullen.

I didn't move for another half hour until Katie came knocking at my door, informing me that it was supper time. I patted the girl on the head when I entered the hallway after her and she beamed adoringly at me. I grinned back and pushed thoughts of the elfin creature from my head.

Supper was filled with Katie's babble about her first day of school. I mentioned going to Virginia over the weekend to get my ROTC stuff and received a curt nod from my brother. After dinner I was once again lassoed into dish washing duty and then a two hour SpongeBob marathon while my niece attempted to avoid going to bed.

I was dog tired by the time I made it to my room, but this time I did manage to get out of my clothes and under the covers before I fell into a deep sleep.

**jwjwjw**

The next day was better… and worse. It was better because I knew where all my classes were. It was better because people were staring less. It was better because I knew where I would sit at lunch.

It was worse because it was even colder and the snow was deeper. It was worse because Maria was still mad at me. It was worse because the night before I had dreamed of my mother. It was worse because Alice Cullen didn't even acknowledge my presence.

My first classes went well. I made it through despite my increasing excitement at seeing Alice in Government. I arrived ridiculously early and sat fidgeting in my seat for the next five minutes. The closer it got to the tardy bell the antsier I became. Finally, just as the bell rang Alice pranced in appearing just as magnificent as yesterday. Maybe more so. She wasn't looking at me though, her eyes were trained on a stack of papers she held in her hands. She was flipping through them as she made her way across the room, her brow wrinkled. When she got to her desk she put the papers down and the dropped her backpack beside her desk. Then she sat down demurely.

"Morning," I whispered, leaning forward a bit. She didn't respond. Before I could repeat myself a little louder the teacher stood up and started class.

Class dragged on forever it seemed. Whenever I tried to get Alice's attention it was like she became even more oblivious to me. The rejection was made complete when the bell rang and she left without saying a word. To say I was hurt would be a complete understatement.

"Hey so, what's wrong," Peter asked after class when I didn't respond to any of his questions.

"I just don't feel so hot."

Peter patted my shoulder. "Maybe you'll feel better once you eat something. Come on."

During lunch I felt like I might get whiplash what with the number of times I turned to look at the Cullen's table. She didn't look up at me once. About the tenth time I looked over though her brother, Edward, did. He caught me staring and his eye hardened. I felt an immediate since of fear roll over me. It was not unlike being confronted by a predator, by a cougar.

I felt sort of like I was floating, like all the noise around me had faded away and there was nothing but me and the danger. Edward's gaze remained steady, as did mine, but I felt my heart and breathing speed up. I felt coiled like a spring and suddenly very small. And then I got angry. I had felt this way before and I didn't like it. I had promised myself that I would never feel this powerless again. Here it was though, in this tiny town in the ass crack of nowhere.

"_Jasper, be very still, don't make a sound."_

"_She hasn't seen you yet Jasper."_

"_There are shells in the glove box. You need to be so quiet Jasper."_

A scream jolted me back to the present so abruptly that I flew out of my seat and away from the table. Louis had done something to Nettie and she was letting out girlish shrieks every few seconds as she tried to avoid whatever he was doing.

"You ok Jasper?" Peter asked. He and Charlotte seemed to be the only ones aware of my strange behavior.

I smiled and hoped it wasn't too shaky. "Yeah, I wasn't paying attention and she startled me." Peter nodded in understanding. My heart was still beating so fast it hurt and I felt weak limbed. "Look, I'm still not feeling so hot. I'm just gonna go ahead and get to class." I gathered my things. "I'll see ya'll later."

I risked one more glance at the Cullen table. Edward was no longer looking at me. He was leaned toward Alice, whispering something to her. I didn't linger any longer; too worried that he might look at me again with those predator eyes.

U.S. and Psych seemed to drag on endlessly, especially in light of events at lunch.

English was being held in the LRC computer lab. It was a windowless room in the back left corner of the library. Inside, the desks were lined up along the walls so that a teacher could see what any student was doing at all times. This was supposed to cut down on the number of students who wasted their time in the lab with surfing the web. In reality it just made them sneakier. The room was sound-proofed, and any noise made inside of it echoed of the cold walls and tile floor.

I found a seat near the door and, with Mr. P's help, logged on to the old computer in front of me. By the time Alice walked in (right before the bell) I had already found a database and was searching for articles on our topic. I didn't speak to her as she sat in the desk beside me. There was silence between us for what felt like a long time, but I refused to break it. Finally she did.

"Have you found anything yet?" she asked, acting as though she hadn't completely dissed me this morning. She had an article on her screen, scanned it quickly then went back, not finding what she was looking for before looking up at me.

"Oh, are you speaking to me now?" I asked in an attempt to be mocking, but I don't think I hid my pleasure at her company well enough for it to go over that way. The mistake was looking at her.

"I'm really sorry about this morning," Alice apologized, looking at me with her doe-like eyes. They were darker today I noticed offhand. She turned in her seat to face me and leaned forward a little. I wanted to forgive her on the spot but I resisted.

"Yeah, what was up with that anyway?" I demanded, truly curious and still a little miffed.

She opened her mouth as if to speak and then looked away. She almost seemed embarrassed. "You…you make me nervous. I just…I can't concentrate when I'm around you." She looked almost as surprised as I felt. Clenching her teeth briefly, she turned away completely. "I feel like I should be blushing," she muttered.

"You aren't," I informed her, still in a little shock. It was true though, her face was uniformly pale.

"I'm not used to feeling like this Jasper." She wasn't looking at me.

I can't be sure of exactly what she was feeling. But I know what I was feeling, and I was in complete agreement with her. "Me either."

We didn't speak for the rest of the period but I got very little done that class. She didn't find anything either. When school was over I walked her to her car.

**jwjwjw**

Wednesday was much like Tuesday, only Alice spoke to me that morning. Apologizing again for yesterday and looking a little sheepish. There was small talk and then class. We didn't talk about what had been said in the computer lab the day before. In English we had to get some actual work done since yesterday had been wasted. For the third day in a row I walked her to her car.

"Um, see ya tomorrow," I said when we reached the car. Edward wasn't there yet and I was hoping to get away before he showed up.

"We need to write the paper tomorrow after school. Can we go to your place? Mine's like a madhouse." She said this all with a big smile.

"Yeah, sure," I replied automatically. "I'll just give you a ride?"

"Ok, and Edward can come pick me up when we finish."

I nodded. "Alright. See ya'."

**jwjwjw**

Thursday I woke up early with my chest already tight in anticipation. I made my bed for the first time since moving in. I gathered all the dirty clothes spread around the floor and piled them into the hamper in the laundry room.

In the shower, I soaped myself up twice. I shaved for the first time since Monday. I put on clean underwear and jeans. I wore a shirt that didn't have anything smart ass on it.

I felt like a complete fool.

I sighed and looked at myself in the mirror. "Damn. I probably don't have a chance in Hell and look at me anyway," I muttered, reaching up to pat my hair. I laughed quietly to myself and headed downstairs.

I'd been in such a state this morning that I hadn't noticed quite how early it really was. There was still half an hour before I needed to be at school.

Jenny looked up at me in surprise. "Morning Sunshine. Want some breakfast?" I sort of smiled and took my place at the table. Jenny slid a plate of bacon and eggs in front of me. Josh looked up from the paper at me briefly and then looked away.

The food was good so I focused on eating it. But when I was finished and after refusing seconds I figured it would be good to actually ask for permission to bring Alice over. "I've got a group project I'm working on for English. It's a paper. My partner is coming over after school so we can write it, ok?"

Josh grunted and Jenny nodded with a smile.

I put my dishes in the sink and left for school.

The second I got out of my truck I was assaulted by Alice. She must have been waiting on me because when I closed my door she was there. I jumped a little and she laughed. The sound distracted me as much as usual so I had no time to react when she looped her fingers through a couple of my belt loops and pulled me closer to her. Her eyes were bright gold again and sparkling with mischief. "I'm not gonna be in Gov. today. I'm skipping so I can help Emmett with something. I'll see you in English though, ok?"

"Uh, yeah sure," I said once I had regained my capability of speech.

She beamed. "Great, see you then." She released me. "You smell really good today. Later!" When I shook myself out of my daze she was long gone.

I grinned to myself. _Heh, she thinks I smell good._

After that school seemed like torture. True to her word, Alice was absent from Government. She and her brother Emmett were missing from lunch as well, which seemed to confuse her other siblings as much as it did me.

When it was finally time for English I felt an unholy amount of anticipation. She was there already but looked distracted. After flashing a smile my way she opened her mouth to speak to me. The bell rang and cut off whatever she had planned on saying. Mr. P wasn't wasting any time today. During class there was no time for talking.

It was unusual for silence between us to be comfortable, but I found that the one that lasted from the end of English until we got in my truck to be very nice. It was like we didn't have to speak to know what was going to happen next. I didn't even wait for her to loop her arm around mine first this time, offering mine readily. It was a nice feeling.

"Sorry it's so cold," I said once we got in my car. I cranked the heat on quickly.

"It's fine, I don't mind," she replied.

The rest of the ride was silent.

When we walked in the back door it was to see Wes standing on the table, looking angry, as Jenny buttoned up his heavy jacket. Upon seeing me his mood worsened. Jenny smiled at me and then at Alice. "I'm going to get Katie and I'll take Wes today."

"You sure? I don't mind watching him 'til you get back," I offered, hoping she would turn me down.

"No, no, you focus on your school work." With a final tug the zipper on the jacket closed. Jenny flipped he hood over Wes's head and scooped him up. Turning her attention to Alice she said, "Hi, I'm Jenny, Jasper's sister-in-law." She offered her free hand.

Alice shook it politely. "Alice Cullen, it's a pleasure meeting you."

"Oh my! You're hand is so cold! You poor thing, it must be freezing out there!" Jenny exclaimed.

"Isn't it always?" I countered more than a little snidely. Jenny swatted my shoulder playfully.

"You know what I mean." She glanced at the clock. "Oh, I'm gonna be late. Be a gentleman Jasper," she added as she rushed out the door.

"Yeah, yeah," I muttered after her. My southern breeding reared its head again though. "Would you like anything to drink?"

Alice smiled as if thinking of an inside joke. "No thank you, I'm not thirsty."

I noticed the cookies cooling on the stove and headed straight for them. Grabbing up two of the still soft confections I popped one in my mouth right away. "Cookie?" I asked with my mouth still full, holding the second out to Alice. She shook her head in amusement. I shrugged. More for me.

After I had a handful of cookies I lead Alice over to the entrance to my attic. She didn't look surprised to see a stair case behind the door and maneuvered herself up it with startling ease, even hindered by her backpack. I felt very clumsy as I followed her up.

Alice was all business the minute I was on my feet. She had already outlined a few paragraphs but there was little transition between them. Astonishingly it only took us about an hour to get the body lined out and in a semblance of good order. I typed up what we had so far as she got up and made her way to my bookcase. There was silence for a long time other than the clack of keys and our breathing so I didn't pay much attention to what she was doing until she spoke.

"What did you want to be? Growing up, I mean," she asked suddenly, looking up from my bookcase where she had pulled out an old yearbook. I hadn't even noticed that she'd left my side until that moment. It was just one more thing to add to my list of Alice Cullen's Oddities, her silence in motion. The book was the one from Kindergarten. I could remember that I was upset with the picture because I had lost one of my front teeth the night before and the lady that took it made me smile so the gap showed.

"I wanted to be an astronaut and a ball player. Preferably at the same time," I replied, turning to watch her openly now. I pushed ctrl s to save the work we had thus far. We were almost finished so a break wouldn't hurt anything.

She sat gracefully on the floor, propping the book open in her lap, the grey light from outside casting a shadow over half of her lovely pale face. "An astronaut?" she asked, incredulous.

"All little boys want to be astronauts," I answered, playfully defensive. Her grin was breathtaking, as I'd come to expect of the last few days. "What about you?" I returned once I had control over my voice again. "What did you want to be?"

A very serious look over came her delicate features. She thought about it for a moment, lines forming between her brows. "I'm not sure," she answered finally, looking up at me with a tilted head.

"What do ya' mean?" I asked without thinking.

"You know we're all adopted right?" she asked, referring to her family. I nodded. "Well, I'm the newest to the family." She was silent for a moment, gathering her thoughts. "You know how people sometimes block unpleasant things?" I nodded again. She grinned without humor, her golden eyes darkening. "Well, my childhood must have been pretty crappy," she finished her words more meaningful than they sounded.

We were silent for a long time then, just looking at each other. I tried not to imagine what it must be like, to not remember your childhood, but I couldn't help it. I wondered what sort of things must have happened to her that she couldn't even remember. I looked from her face to her hands, her fingers were running over the edges of the bookbinding rhythmically.

"You must have wanted to be a teacher," I said finally, looking back at her face. "All little girls want to be teachers." A hundred questions buzzed though my brain in that moment, but I ignored them. Now was not the time to pry into heavy matters.

She smiled at me shyly, and then looked down at the book. "Yeah, a teacher," she muttered. After a moment, I turned back to the computer and brought up my e-mail while she continued through my bookshelf. She had found this past years' book and was checking the index for my name. "Man, this book is all about you," she teased. "You're listed on twenty pages."

I didn't comment other than to chuckle quietly. Four new messages waited on me, one from my dad, one from Amazon, and two from Jinx, one of my oldest friends and an ever bigger whiz with a computer than me. He could hack anything; probably even Wal-Mart wasn't safe. I deleted the one from Amazon and decided to save the others for when I was alone.

I turned to look at her again. "What do you want to be now?" she asked, looking up to catch me staring.

"Average," I replied easily. "I wanna' be a rancher like my father, marry a good lookin' girl, but not too good lookin', then have two kids, a girl first and then a boy. Teach my daughter to watch out for wild eyed boys and my son how to handle a baseball bat. Then when my daughter gets married and my son goes to college I'll retire and spend the rest of my life smoking a pipe on my back porch in my rocking chair."

She smiled sort of sadly. "That sounds nice." I grinned.

"What about you?" I returned, tucking my hands behind my head and rocking back in my desk chair.

"I honestly don't know. All that's on the agenda at the moment is finishing high school." She looked down and to the left.

"You're lying," I taunted, shifting until my elbows rested on my knees. She looked at me sharply. "Or editing at the very least." Here she looked away with a sheepish grin.

"It's stupid," she muttered, running her fingers over the patterns in the wood grain of my floor.

"Well now I have to know," I teased, poking her gently. Her shoulder was hard and cool under her shirt. She remained silent. "Come on," I encouraged, dropping the teasing note from my voice, "I highly doubt anything you say could be stupid."

She smiled shyly. "Flattery will get you everywhere Mr. Whitlock," she remarked lightly in an effort to change the subject.

Though her comment was an intriguing prospect, I'm not easily put off. "And your evasive maneuvers will not deter me Ms. Cullen," I quipped. She rolled her eyes and huffed, cutting a glance to me in swift appraisal before looking back at the book in her lap.

"I… I'd like to find my soul mate," she whispered with a small grin on her lips. Her eyes remained downcast. My chest burned and felt tight.

I was at a loss for a moment but then I nudged her again. "See, that wasn't stupid at all." Her smile was radiant again. Silence reigned for a long minute while we looked at each other. I tried not to think too hard about what she said. Any guy that captured her heart was gonna be a lucky sob that's for damn sure. I hoped my jealousy didn't show on my face. Alice stood up quickly then closing the book quietly as she did. She returned it to the shelf.

"We should finish, Edward will be here soon to pick me up."

With the moment broken by the mention of her brother, who still had me completely terrified, I turned back to my computer. "Okay, let's wrap 'er up."

Only ten minutes later we were finished, and strangely enough, just as I pushed the print button, Alice picked up her phone and answered it before the first ring. "Okay, I'll be right down." I wondered briefly how she had known the exact moment the phone would ring but put it out of my mind for the time being. "Can you bring the paper to class?" she asked, drawing my attention back to her.

"Sure."

I followed her down and then, despite the cold, decided to see her to where her brother was waiting in his Volvo. He was watching us intently and I looked down quickly, feeling a small bit of fear again. Alice paused beside me, looking quickly at her brother before moving to block me from going farther. She touched my elbow gently. "What's wrong?" she demanded. Her voice was firm.

"Nothing," I replied automatically, adopting my 'bewildered face' and glancing at her quickly.

"You're lying," she countered and not in the teasing way I had earlier. She moved a step closer, definitely in my personal space. "What are you afraid of?"

That question always brought the same response. It did when the therapists asked it. It did when the doctors asked it. It did when tiny little Alice Cullen asked it. My left arm wrapped around my midsection and I gripped my side. Even through the three layers I was wearing I could still feel the scar. This time I was the one grinning without humor. "Cougars." I cut one more glance at Edward then turned to make my way back inside. "See ya' at school."

**JWJWJW**

**Hope ya'll liked it. Please review.**


	6. Flashback

**Sunset**

**Chapter Five-Flashback**

**Disclaimer: Not mine**

**A/N: Ya'll did pretty good with the reviews so I decided to go ahead and post this before I got 100. It's close enough and I figure ya'll have been waiting.**

**Just a couple of notes.**

**First: there is now a forum for this story. It's just a place ya'll can go to bitch at me if I haven't updated in a while or if you have a question or want to destroy my fragile self confidence. You can get to it from my profile. There are also status updates on my profile for each of my stories and I try to keep up with those, so if you're wondering what's going on you can always check there.**

**Second: This chapter is full of angsty, whiny, bitchy Jasper…and a little bit of violent Jasper. I'm not really a big fan of making boys act like sissies but he's a sensitive guy and he's still grieving, so I'm giving the poor guy a chance to get it all out.**

**Sorry he's such a little bitch in this chapter.**

**Third: I'm pretty sure that if the language gets any worse in this thing I might have to change the rating. Tell me what you think.**

**Now , on with the show.**

**JWJWJW**

The inside of the house was much warmer. I felt the bought heat run through me almost instantly, warming up my hands and feet again. I couldn't stop shaking though. I stood there, in the entrance way, for a long time. The shaking didn't stop and my arm was still wrapped around my front.

That's how Josh found me.

I'm not sure exactly what happened after that until I was in the bathroom. I don't even remember being led there. I just remember the view changing from hard wood to white tile. The next thing I remember with clarity was the icy spray of the shower on my naked body.

"HOLY SHIT!" I screeched, jerking back against the wall behind me and nearly slipping on the slick shower bottom. A pair of large hands caught me around the upper arms and held me up, which only served to scare me further. I flailed franticly, my feet slip sliding around and the rest of my body jerking like a wild horse while also trying to stay out of the sharp needles of ice coming from the shower head.

"Fine, crack your head open for all I care!" my brother's voice challenged. I stopped moving, finally realizing who had a hold on me, and he let me loose. My heart was still beating a frightening rhythm on the inside of my ribs when I turned to face him.

"What the hell was that for?" I demanded, shoving him bodily away from me so I could climb out of the shower/tub combo and get away from the cold. Before I could lift over a leg though, he was back in front of me, pushing me back into the stall. I only stayed up by grabbing on to the built in soap caddy on the wall.

"You scared the shit out Jenny just standin' 'round in the hall like yer brain done been cut out, not sayin' a word and with a dumbass look on yer face. Then I drag you in here and hafta undress ya like I haven't had ta since you was a baby. I thought you done lost yer fool head or somthin'. What the hell is yer problem boy?" Josh was angry. I could tell by the way his accent got thicker the longer his rant lasted.

I took a deep, albeit shaky breath. "Sorry," I muttered, not able to look him in the eye. "I'm sorry. I don't know what's wrong. I just felt out of sorts."

Josh assessed me for a moment with his brow furrowed over his dark eyes, much like our father might have. After a moment his nostrils flared as he forced out a jet of air and nodded. "Fine, don't do it again." He tilted his head toward the water still raining down. "Turn up the heat and take a shower. I'll have Katie bring some dinner to your room later."

I nodded and he turned to leave, twisting the lock on the door before shutting it so that no one would walk in on me. Using my foot, I reached out to the water knobs and turned the hot all the way up before reaching for the other and turning the cold down in increments until the water was a good temperature. I stood under the hot spray for a moment until I could feel all the cold water that had collected at the bottom of the tub had washed away down the drain. Then I sat down on the water warmed porcelain with the stream pounding down on top of me and finally let myself cry.

**jwjwjw**

I stayed in the shower until the water ran cold, and I think I might have fallen asleep at some point in the middle cause my head felt fuzzy and void of thoughts except about wondering how I'd gotten that bruise on my knee. I shut off the water before I could get too cold, realizing belatedly that I hadn't actually washed in all the time I spent in the bath.

The room beyond the shower curtain was choked with steam. The white wisps swirled through the air languidly; I tracked the motions and wondered briefly if I had been drugged.

I made it to my room in a daze but without incident. Once I closed the trap door behind me I felt hyper aware. I could hear the electric whirring of the lights and my computer. All the hair on my arms and legs was standing up and I could feel the air flowing through the room like a physical touch. But the most extreme thing was that I could distinctly smell the cloying scent of Alice lingering in the room.

The room wasn't completely dark; a pale grey light was coming in through the window giving everything a shadowed hue. I pulled back the covers on my bed and slipped between them wearing only my boxers. I lay there for what felt like a long time just staring at the ceiling. It was only when I heard a knock on my trap door that I realized all the light had left the room.

"Come in." My throat was dry and my voice hollow.

Katie's head popped through the opening in my floor and I was reminded of a groundhog. I smiled a little at the resemblance and she smiled back.

"Mommy says you're sick so she made you a fun supper," the little blonde informed me. She pulled up a plain brown sack and a cold can of Coke. "You're lucky. We have to eat stew." She wrinkled her nose in distaste before climbing into my room completely. She brought the food with her and dropped the sack on my stomach and put the Coke on my bedside table. "Feel better Jasper," she chirped before turning and prancing out of the room.

The sack contained a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a bag of Cheetos, an apple and two of the cookies Jenny had made earlier.

Halfway through the sandwich I could no longer contain my weeping.

**jwjwjw**

The lethargy I felt upon waking a few hours later nearly overpowered me. My eyes felt sore. I had cried myself to sleep it seemed and now the skin of my eyelids burned and itched. My chest felt caved in and I labored to breathe properly. I felt a sob rise in my throat when the images of my dream came back to me. I fought down the tears even as I grabbed at my scared side.

The dream had been full of screaming and gunshots and now the silence of my room seemed to carry echoes.

I knew that I must be starting to enter a depression. I'd had episodes before and this one didn't seem nearly as bad as some of them that had occurred after my mother's death.

I sat up and then got out of bed.

_Lying around will just make it worse._

My morning abolitions passed in a daze and somehow I ended up in front of my truck with my hand on the handle. I felt like a zombie. I let go of the door handle and put that cold hand on my cheek instead. I tensed, removed my hand from my face and then brought it back sharply so that I slapped myself quite hard. The striking sound rang out in the crisp morning air.

I huffed, shook myself off and then climbed into my truck.

I ended up being late to school, but at least I made it in one piece. I had been forced by my tardiness to park on the far end of the lot right where the gate was. Far from fortuitous, this meant that unless I was the very first one out of school this afternoon I was going to be trapped in the lot. I got out and reached in to grab my back pack. When I had locked my truck I turned and started to make my way across the lot to the side gate closer to the school.

I had only gone three steps when I saw Edward leaning casually against the gate. He wasn't looking at me and seemed to be waiting for something. I wondered if it was worth the tension I'd feel walking past him just to get to class sooner. I deliberated a few seconds more before Edward felt my gaze and looked up at me. I was too far away to see if he was glaring but the fear that he was enough to bring up images from my dream.

_Her laughter cut off abruptly. The silence was shocking, but beyond that, it seemed to hold and ominous tone. I looked up and located my mother quickly. She was directly in front of the truck with her left side profile facing me. She wasn't moving and her face was frozen in a wary, fearful look. Her gaze was fixed on the craggy rock face in front of her._

"_Mom?" I could hear the worry in my voice. I reached to push the door open farther, but her voice halted me._

"_Don't move." Her usually friendly tone was replaced with a whip crack that I had only heard her use once before. Then, Josh had just been about to step down on a coiled rattler in his path._

_I froze too. Everything except my eyes. I traced the path of her gaze to the rocks._

_It wasn't a very tall stand of stone, only about ten feet high, but there were shelves of grey stone that stuck out awkwardly like steps. At first I didn't see anything, but in my third look over I saw her._

_I'd seen cougars before, in the zoo and at wildlife demonstrations at the fairs. They usually appeared to be handsome creatures, lean predators that somehow looked noble._

_This one wasn't like that at all. For one thing, it wasn't one of the well-fed glossy beasts I'd seen. She was rail thin and it made her head look far too large for her body. She held herself oddly, all of her weight on her front and left hind leg. I could see dark spots on her right leg and she seemed to be favoring it. I could also see that, thin as she was, the skin of her belly hung down loose like an empty sack._

_We had stumbled upon a hungry, hurt, nursing mother lion and she was in a defensive pose._

"_Oh shit."_

I backed up slowly, not taking my eyes from Edward's. The other boy's brow furrowed. He seemed confused and that was enough to take the predatory gleam out of his eye. I turned and walked to the other gate. It would definitely be worth being late.

**jwjwjw**

I got to class, which was being held in the gym, twenty minutes after the tardy bell. To my extreme displeasure, Alice happened to have PE first period. Ten minutes ago, when I was climbing out of my truck, I would have paid anything to see Alice in her gym clothes getting all sweaty and owning at whatever sport the girls happened to be playing. But my run in with Edward and the subsequent flashback had put me off seeing any of the Cullens right away.

Plus, I knew I was going to be publicly embarrassed by Colonel Dunlap for being so late to class.

"Whitlock!" the man shouted down the ball court when I slinked in. I flinched as the entire girls class and ROTC class turned to look at me. "Nice of you to show up. You may join my class after you catch up with your calisthenics. Twenty pushups, fifty jumping jacks, forty crunches and ten laps around the court, get to it."

I sighed, snapped a salute and dropped to the floor. Over the next twenty minutes I tried to focus solely on my exercises and not on the way some of the girls would stop and stare or giggle. I kept my head down, but I couldn't stop myself from looking through my eyelashes at the court Alice was playing volleyball in. She didn't look my way the whole time. I tried to convince myself that I didn't care.

I finished my work out in time to join in on a game the other kids were playing. We all had to try and steal the 'treasure' from a 'dragon' before it caught us. The game was supposed to teach teamwork in theory. It was fun so I didn't worry so much if I'd learned anything.

The rest of the morning was mundane, even Government. I didn't really feel like talking and Alice seemed to get that. I hated the worried look she had on her face, so I just buried my head in my arms and tried not to fall asleep.

I walked into the lunch room in a sour mood. Even easy-going Peter was a little wary of me. I looked up at the Cullen table out of reflex. Only Emmett and Bella were there so far. They were talking to each other and laughing. As I wandered to the line I thought over what my problem was with Edward. But even thinking about it caused me to stiffen up.

_I just don't like his eyes. He's dangerous, like an animal._

When I got back to the table lunch was in full swing. I sat across from Maria, inbetween Peter and Luis.

Luis and I just didn't get along. We had nothing in common and the sound of his voice was enough to annoy me. It didn't help that I came to the table already at the end of my rope. The usual lunch banter was easy to participate in, even if I didn't give it my all.

I don't even remember what Luis said that made me snap. I think it was something like, "you're a sad little momma's boy."

Under normal circumstances I would have just flipped him off. That day I punched him in the face.

"_Jasper, you have to be so quiet," she was keeping her voice calm and even so as not to startle the big cat. "Don't make any sudden movements. There's shells for the shot gun in the glove box."_

_I moved as swiftly as I dared as I reached for the shot gun mounted behind me. I had it in my lap after what felt like forever but was actually less than a minute according to the bright green numbers on the truck's clock display. It was when I was reaching for the glove box that it happened. I looked down, and my mother must have shifted or moved her feet._

_Two horrid shrieks filled the air and I looked up to see the cat leaping across the space between her and my mother._

_I scrambled then for the shells. This gun was the only chance I had. My mother was a smart woman; she would be able to take care of herself for the ten seconds I would need to load the gun. That's what I was telling myself anyway._

_My hands shook as I rushed to load the gun. I kept myself focused on the weapon and not the sounds of the fight. When it was ready I looked up and saw that my mother had used her arm, sticking it in the lioness's mouth sideways, as a way to keep the animal away from her face and throat. There was blood all over her arm._

_I burst out of the truck with all the grace of an elephant and that distracted the creature enough that my mother was able to land a solid kick to her ribs. She leapt away a few feet as best she could on her bad leg and then turned to face us._

"_Shoot her Jasper, she's not gonna let this go."_

"_Do you think she's rabid?"_

"_It's possible."_

_That frightened me more. I took aim and fired. The cat jumped just in time. I had been aiming for her chest and I hit her already injured back leg as she was in the air. She yowled but her trajectory was relatively unchanged._

_There was a scuffle and more screaming from the cat. I was surprised that my mother was only grunting as the cat bit and clawed at her. The cat was on top so I took my second shot. This one hit too, but the animal seemed unaffected by the wound._

_My mother was kicking and punching and reaching for the cat's eyes and nothing was working. I took the gun by the barrel and swung the butt down hard onto the cat's back. Then I did it again._

_And again._

_And again._

_And again._

_Finally the monster seemed to take notice of me, but only as a nuisance. I was a gnat on her ear, so she reached up and swatted me._

_The force of her blow sent in a spinning sprawl. I landed on my stomach and could feel a tearing pain in my side. I could feel the blood and the pain but I didn't look down._

_I got to my feet again, staggering as I did, and took up the gun again. In the back of my mind I registered that my mother was still trying to fight the animal off and that that was a good sign, but something was taking over most of my thinking. A boiling, animalistic rage was bubbling through my veins. A buzzing filled my ears._

_I roared and charged; bringing the gun around in a powerful swing like it was a baseball bat. My aim was true. The side of the cat's head met the butt of the gun with a crack and the animal went flying, or at least tumbling, away. I followed and brought the weapon down again on her head._

_I could hear the cat screaming through the buzz, her paws were flailing around and she caught my right leg a few times but I didn't falter. I don't know how many times I hit the animal before I came back to myself enough to hear my mother calling my name._

"…_she's dead. Jasper, stop, she's dead." I stopped mid swing, really looking at the cougar for the first time in a while. I couldn't even be sick at all the blood. I was just satisfied. "That's my boy. Come on Jasper, we need to get to the hospital now." I nodded and backed away from the cat before turning to my mother._

_She was a mess. She must have seen as much in my expression._

"_I'm going to be fine, baby, but we need to get to the hospital."_

_She wasn't fine._

The fight lasted ten seconds tops. After I punched him, Luis fell out of his chair. I was on top of him and had another blow to his face before he had even landed completely. I saw his cheek split right over the bone. I drew back for another swing and Alice was suddenly there holding both of my wrists. I fought her grip but couldn't get loose. Unfortunately, Emmett didn't reach the fight for another two seconds or he could have pulled Luis away before the blond got a chance to bust my nose. Alice let go of me as the blood and pain exploded over my face, but Emmett was between Luis and I, pushing me away and dragging Luis back by the collar of his shirt.

The fight was over but the chaos wasn't. Luis was struggling in Emmett's grasp, the students were still chanting 'fight', Peter was shoving napkins under my nose, and Alice was looking at me with a look of mingled fear and disgust. Her jaw was clenched tight, the muscles twitching visibly from the strain, and her eyes were black like pitch. There was no time for me to even think that was odd before the campus cop burst into the circle that had formed around us.

I looked up at the livid man.

_FML_

**jwjwjw**

The cop put Luis and me in cuffs and led us to the principal's office. Alice, Emmett and Peter had been allowed to walk under their own power. My nose was no longer bleeding by the time we reached the room but it was starting to swell and the cut on Luis's cheek was still leaking a bit so they called for the nurse.

The cop sat between us and Peter sat on my other side. Alice and Emmett took seats as close to the door as they could. I kept my head down, but I couldn't help but look at them every few minutes while we waited. While I was mostly focused on whether they would call Jenny or Josh about the mess I'd started, I did notice that Emmett seemed incredibly tense. He was clenching and unclenching his fists in his lap and both he and Alice had their jaws set so tightly it was a wonder we couldn't hear their teeth grinding. They were both staring out the window that showed the visitor and teacher parking lots like they were waiting for someone to arrive.

The nurse arrived before the principle did. She treated Luis first. It didn't take much, just some ointment and a bandage. When she moved to me she started at my nose, feeling along it with gentle fingers. "Yep, broken. You're going to have a couple of lovely shiners in the morning." She gave me an ice pack and noticed that I winced when I tried to lift it to my nose. "Arms or ribs?" she asked knowingly.

"Both." My wrists hurt the worst but she had me stand up so she could feel along my side. I refused to look anywhere but the wall directly in front of me when she asked if she could lift my shirt. The angle she was at meant that only Peter would be able to see the scars, for that I was grateful.

I was slightly less grateful when he muttered a "whoa."

The nurse prodded my ribs gently and then let my shirt down. "Looks like they're a bit bruised, but you should be ok with a few days rest. Now for those wrists." She had me sit back down and rolled back my shirtsleeves for me. I managed to not wince much but I did hiss like the air being let out of a balloon. "Oh my, when did this happen?"

I looked down to see what she was talking about and was surprised to see my wrists were covered in dark bruises already. "I don't know," I answered honestly. The only person that even touched my wrists was Alice, and even though she had a tight hold on me, there's no way she could have caused those marks. She had me move them up and down and in little circles. It hurt like a bitch, but I could move them so she didn't think they were broken.

"You'll be ok; you just need to be careful." She turned to the cop. "Officer, these cuffs are too tight."

The cop didn't look happy about it but he loosened the cuffs a tiny bit.

The next ten minutes seemed to stretch out forever, but when the principal finally stalked out of his office I wished he hadn't. I wasn't really worried about him. He wasn't mad at us for starting a fight. He was just worried about his reputation. I could wheedle Luis and I out of this with no problem, maybe just a couple detentions or something.

"I've called all of your parents!" he declared and then he turned around and stomped back into his office dramatically.

Mrs. Cullen was the first to arrive. She was incredibly beautiful, just like the rest of her family, but she seemed softer than the others. She also looked too young to be the mother of five teenagers. She looked directly at Luis and me first, it was only for a second, but I could have sworn that her eyes got darker. Then she turned to Emmett and Alice. Alice scooted over so her mother could sit between them and then wrapped her arm through the older woman's and leaned against her. Mrs. Cullen reached down and took one of Emmett's tense hands in hers.

I looked away then 'cause my throat and eyes were burning.

Josh showed up next. His face was red, I hoped from cold, but as usual he was just pissed.

"You can't even stay out of trouble for a week," he hissed, walking right up to me so I had to look up to see him. "I oughta beat the tar outta you, but it looks like this kid did a fairly good job already." Luis snickered and Josh glared at him. "You're lucky I ain't related to you String Bean."

"Josh, can we please not do this right now?" I begged, turning on as much charm as I could. It didn't work on him though.

"Oh don't worry little brother, we're gonna have a nice long talk when we get home. You can count on that." Thankfully Josh didn't get to say anything else before Mrs. Mallory and Peter's father entered the room.

What followed next was something straight out of a John Hughes movie, and I'm better than any Farris. The hardest part was getting Luis's mother and my brother to stop yelling over each other. Surprisingly, Luis went along with me very easily, but I figure he didn't want to be suspended anymore than I did. We got off with a stern lecture and three Saturday school detentions each. It was also decided that Luis and I were to go home for the rest of the day (I _was_ covered in dry blood). I avoided Alice's eyes as my brother hauled me out of the small office by the upper arm.

Just outside the school building Josh pushed me against the nearest wall. He didn't push me hard, in fact I'm pretty sure I'd been hurt worse when we were little, but it made my ribs ache something awful. "I'm sick of your shit," he spat, getting his face up in mine.

"He was talkin shit about Mom!" I protested.

"Shut up, Jasper. That kid doesn't know jack about you or what our family has been through. So he made a thoughtless comment, get over it. People make them all the time. You can't go around punching every idiot that makes a 'your momma' joke. Mom died. She's dead, Jasper, and she's never coming back. And it's awful. It's the worst thing that's ever happened to me, so I can only imagine how hard it is for you. But I'm gonna' tell you this right now, Mom woulda' been so ashamed of you just then." My back stiffened and I looked anywhere but at him. I knew he was right and that was the worst part. The shame rolled over me. "Here's what's gonna' happen, you're grounded until you finish your Saturday detentions, so I suggest you start tomorrow. There will be no going anywhere outside of school and home unless Jenny needs you to run an errand. There will be no friends coming over for any reason other than school work. If that's the case you may sit at the kitchen table and nowhere else. You aren't allowed to watch TV unless you're taking care of the little ones and they're already watching something. I'm going to let Dad decide what to do about your phone and computer since he pays for them. Any questions?"

I was silent for a moment and when I spoke my voice sounded small to my own ears. "I needed to go to Virginia for my ROTC stuff."

"I'll call the order in tomorrow. I can have them mail it to us."

I nodded meekly.

"Ok, go straight home. Do not pass Go, do not collect 200 dollars." I almost smiled at the old joke. It had been something both of our parents would say to us when we got in trouble and they were done blassin' us out. He let go of me and straightened my jacket. Then he nodded and walked off to get in his car.

Once he got in the van I closed my eyes and let out a deep breath, leaning my head against the wall and pulled my arms up against my chest. My wrists were starting to ache and the ice bag I still held was getting heavy.

It wasn't until I heard a throat clear near me that I remembered I was right outside the front of the school. Josh had been talking quietly but embarrassment still took over when I turned quickly and saw Alice and her mother standing a few feet away. Emmett was nowhere to be seen, thankfully. I wondered if they'd heard anything and how much they had seen. Josh had made some threats in the office and then he had been rather forceful with me. I didn't want anyone getting the wrong idea. Josh wasn't abusive. He was just brotherly.

He was eight years older than me and had taken it upon himself to toughen me up when we were kids. Rough handling was something I considered normal coming from him. I was actually surprised that he didn't smack my forehead a couple times.

Mrs. Cullen took a step closer to me. "Are you ok dear?" she asked kindly. Her eyes were intense, almost too intense, but I could tell she was genuinely worried. There was something about her that just screamed 'nurturer' and it made me miss my mother more.

"Yes I'm fine," I answered automatically, looking down at my feet. I was suddenly struck by the fearful thought that she would think I was some sort of violent person because of what she had seen and heard today and for some reason that really bothered me. I sighed. "I've just had…a _very_ bad day."

"Well I hope it gets better for you," she replied before turning to Alice and whispering something I couldn't hear. Alice shook her head and the older woman patted her cheek gently before turning and walking to her shiny expensive looking car.

When I looked back at Alice I was startled to see that she was much closer than before and I stumbled back a few steps in surprise. She smiled at me like she had the first day we had talked and it made my heart speed up to an impossibly fast rate. She held out her hand and I saw for the first time that she was carrying my backpack.

"Oh thanks." I reached out and took the bag with my empty hand. It was heavy and hurt my wrists to hold it but I managed to soldier through. "I should probably give you the paper to turn in, since I have to go home."

She was nearly too quiet for me to hear. "Yeah."

I fished the paper out and handed it over. She looked like she wanted to say something. "What?" I prompted.

"I…I thought for sure you were going to be suspended. But you just started talking circles around Principal Bull and it's like…you completely changed the energy in the room. It was really amazing to watch…like magic." She trailed off into silence before smiling bashfully. "It seems silly now that I've said it."

"I'm just a fancy talker. I could kill at debate."

She giggled her wind chime laugh.

"And I don't think it's silly. I believe in magic."

"What else do you believe in?" she asked, shifting closer.

"Lots of stuff…unicorns," she giggled again and it made me grin. My smile faded quickly though. "I gotta go before that cop comes out here. I'll see you around I guess." I was turned to walk off when she spoke.

"How did your mother die?"

I stiffened. "She got torn apart by a monster." I left before she could reply.

**jwjwjw**

When I went up to my room after dinner that night it was to find my phone beeping at me. Alice had sent me a text. I only gave the minimum amount of thought to how she had gotten my number before I opened the message.

**R U doing ok?**

I stared at the simple note for a long time before I hit the back button. Of course I wasn't ok. I looked down at the bruises that had formed on my wrists. I'd been giving it a lot of thought since I got home and there's absolutely no way that someone the size of Alice should be capable of making marks like that. There's no way someone the size of Alice should have been able to hold me back the way she did when I was running on adrenaline. There's no way that she could have made it to my side of the fight that fast. She shouldn't have been able to dodge my flailing arm.

It just didn't seem possible. And now that I really thought about it, there were a lot of things about the Cullens that didn't seem possible.

I threw my phone on my bed and went to my desk. After a few seconds of deliberating I got online and finally checked the messages Jinx had sent me.

**To: jazzhandz **

**From: sneaky_jinx34 **

**Subject: hi**

Hey dude, just wanted to see if you got all settled in. Message me. Got shit to tell you dog

Laterz

Jinx

I grinned at the simplicity. That's my best buddy for you.

The next message was similar.

Dude, for reals, get online.

I laughed out loud and deleted the messages before switching over to facebook. He was online, as I had expected, and immediately bombarded me. After about five minutes of apologizing and kissing ass for being such a horrible friend he told me all about this girl he had been flirting with over winter break. I was honestly glad for him, but wasn't really paying that much attention. Jinx, always observant began to question me.

"Ok dude, what's eating you? By this point you should have asked me if I'd tapped this chick or not yet."

"I'm just having a dilemma…I don't know quite what to say. I don't want you to laugh at me…"

"Just spill, bro, before I lose my patients and go look for a new best friend."

"Haha, you've been threatening to find a new best friend since we were in the first grade."

"Dude…"

"Well, it seems stupid, but do you think that there is such a thing as people who have super human speed and strength?"

**JWJWJW**

**A/N: I hope you all liked this ridiculously long chapter. There was a lot to cover here. I feel like the next chapter is gonna be nowhere near this long.**

**I want at least 120 reviews before the next chapter…yeah, that sounds about right.**

**And because I took so long to update, here's a preview of a future chapter…maybe…I haven't really decided yet if I'll put it in. It could just be an extra.**

"Are you both absolutely sure you don't mind doing this? I know you're going over to meet Alice's family. I don't want you to be late." Jenny was fretfully buttoning up Katie's coat as she talked to Alice and I.

"Jen," I interrupted, "it's fine. We'll just wait here 'til you get back from the parent teacher conference. I'm sure the Cullens' will understand."

"Of course," Alice assured her. "I'll just text Edward and tell him…or, we could just take little Wes with us."

I focused my incredulous wide-eyed gaze on Alice. She ignored me completely and simply continued to smile benignly at Jenny. "What?"

She cut a golden glance to me quickly. "It would be perfectly fine. We love kids."

_Yeah? Really? A family of vampires loves kids…rare or well done?_

I immediately felt bad for the direction my thoughts had turned. I know what Alice had told me. I'd heard all of Jinx's theories on animal vs. human blood. I trusted them both and if Alice said that they wouldn't hurt me, then there was no way they'd hurt a little baby…right?

"A-are you sure that's alright?" Jenny asked. She was in a hurry but was holding back until a decision was made.

"Yes." Alice insisted before I could say anything.

She nodded, chewing on her lip as if still worried. "Well, thank you. Thank you very much. Um…there's two bottles in the fridge. His diaper bag is under his changing table, it's already got everything you should need. Oh! He's been biting a lot lately. If he does, I'm giving you both and your family the full authority to bite back. It's the only way he'll learn." And with that she hustled a bundled up Katie out the door.

I turned to face Alice as Wes ran at the door and began trying to turn the knob. "We're taking him to your house?" I asked, still not quite believing it.

"Um hmm," she murmured, slipping closer to me. I know coercion when I see it…or feel it sneaking up my chest. "It'll be fun."

Wes began to cry.

She glanced at the little boy then looked back at me with a sly little grin on her lips. "I hope you don't mind if my family and I refrain from biting him though. I'm not really comfortable with biting another person's child. It seems awkward."

**JWJWJW**

**Ok, now go review :D**


	7. Fright Night

**Sunset**

**Chapter Six-Fright Night**

**Disclaimer: I don't own it.**

**A/N: This was pretty fast for me, I'm sort of amazed at myself. I don't know how I did it honestly. **

**So a few notes first.**

**I'm holding a small contest at the end of this chapter. The rules are at the end.**

**Please don't hate me for the ending.**

**My usual beta is out of town, so I'd like to think MidgetHolmes for stepping up and being an awesome wall for me to bounce ideas off of. MidgetHolmes, you are not allowed to enter the contest…you'll get to read all the sneak peeks anyway.**

**Please don't hate me for the ending.**

**One of my lovely hacker friends, I have several, has informed me that what Jinx does in this chapter is entirely possible…it's kind of scary to think of that.**

**Please don't hate me for the ending.**

**I think 150 reviews will be about right to get the next chapter…seems fair I think.**

**Please don't hate me for the ending. **

**JWJWJW**

"You mean like a super hero?"

"No, I mean for real."

"I get that, but super strong like the Hulk?"

"Oh, yeah, like that. Only not big at all. Smaller than average actually."

"Well, you know I believe in abnormal things Major. I mean, have we or have we not discussed the validity of a zombie uprising many times?" I laughed because it was true. Jinx and I had spent many a lunch hour discussing the possibilities. "You need to tell me the whole story though, or I won't be able to help you out with my infinite knowledge on the supernatural."

I told Jinx everything and it turned out to be almost too easy. I knew I could tell him anything, and even if it made me look like a pansy, he wouldn't be too hard on me. That's what best friends were for after all. The story was longer than I thought it would be. I had to explain in explicit detail how gorgeous Alice was, and in fact, the rest of her family. It told him about all of the odd things I'd noticed over the past week.

_Has it only been a week?_

Not the least of which were the occurrences today. I looked down at my pained wrists.

"Wow," Jinx replied when I'd finished my explanation. "Two things. One, you're so sprung for this chick. Two, that family is at _least_ highly suspect."

"I'm glad you agree." I ignored his first comment; he was just trying to get a rise out of me.

"Well, the first thing we need to do is catalogue everything we can about this family. I need you to give me names too. I'll search some public records…and maybe some not so public ones. You and I are going to figure this thing out if it kills us." Jinx was a big fan of emoticons and they were sprinkled through his message.

I laughed a lot when I read his messages.

The night wore on into the next morning as we went over possibilities. Jinx stayed rooted around super heroes for a little while as he ran his searches. He told me it would take up to an entire day for the search to complete. And then he was going to have to shift through all the results.

By the time Jinx logged off it was three in the morning and my eyes were burning from staring at the computer screen for so long. I slipped into my bed, barely remembering to set my alarm for in the morning.

**jwjwjw**

Saturday school was boring. The weather was clear for the first time since I'd been in this town, the cloudless sky was mocking me. I arrived at 7:30 after only four hours of sleep and blearily made my way along the silent halls of the school. I found the room the 'class' was held in and picked a seat in the back. I was the first to arrive.

I didn't recognize the teacher sitting at the desk, but she nodded at me in greeting. I returned it.

Luis walked in ten minutes later.

"Sit at least two seats away from Mr. Whitlock please," the teacher instructed. She had a smoker's voice and it startled me.

Luis sat on the opposite side of the room.

"Welcome to Saturday school. You two are the only ones that managed to get in trouble the first week of school so it's just the three of us today. You may not speak. You can't leave for any reason unless you start bleeding from your eyes. Please refrain from moving around the room. You can't sleep, listen to music or play with any electronic devices. If I hear a phone go off, it will belong to me until a parent or guardian retrieves it. You must stay here until noon."

I sighed. This was going to be a long four hours. There was rustling on Luis's side of the room. I looked up at him to see that he had pulled out a book and was settling back to read.

_Well damn, why didn't I think of that?_

I hadn't brought anything with me except my phone, keys and pen. I slumped in my seat for a moment before recalling Jinx's parting words to me last night. He asked me to write down every single thing I found out of the ordinary about Alice Cullen and her family. He told me to be observant. Every detail was important.

I got up and walked up to the teacher's desk. She looked up from the book she was reading. "What?"

"Can I get some paper?" I asked, indicating the printer. She rolled her eyes and pulled two sheets from the paper tray.

"Bring your own next time."

"Yes ma'am," I replied meekly. I headed back to my seat.

Two hours passed in a haze of remembrance. I tried to recall every single detail of my interactions with Alice and her family and surprisingly, I had a pretty long list.

I spent the second half of that detention thinking about things I wanted to know about Alice. That list had very little to do with figuring out what she was.

The teacher keeping Louis and I hostage made us stay right up to noon. When she finally let us go I made my way home immediately. Josh had yelled after me that he was calling our father that afternoon to tell him about what I'd done.

He was waiting in the kitchen for me when I got there.

I opened my mouth to speak but he beat me to it.

"Sit." He indicated the chair across from him. I sat. We were silent for a moment while we just stared at each other. He leaned forward, resting his crossed arms on the table. "I've already called Dad." My frown was automatic. "He said he's going to take your texting and internet off your phone until you're ungrounded. I told him you should be out of it around the 26th. That is, if you keep up with the detentions. He's not going to have me take your computer away cause you might need it to write papers and do research and stuff, and I can't really force you to stay off the fun sites, so I guess you just get to keep that." I nodded, leaning back in my chair. It was better than I'd hoped for. "Ok, uh, I also need to know what you need from the Army Surplus so I can call it in today. Then you need to go suit up cause we're gonna' shovel snow."

As I made my way up to my room to change I was already composing my facebook status, it would have to reference Dante's seven circles of hell.

**jwjwjw**

I never realized that three weeks could last so long and fly by at the same time. It was like every moment I wasn't around Alice would pass in an excruciating monotonous haze but anytime I was speaking with her or walking her to her car would be over in a second and I'd ache for more. Even as I wondered what she could possibly be, I also didn't care if I could spend just one more minute with her.

The first Monday after the fight Alice insisted I eat lunch with her. I had walked into the cafeteria already turning my head to look at her table. I felt extremely disappointed when I was she wasn't there. A motion out of the corner of my eye got my attention. I couldn't help the grin that took over my face. She was at a table separate from her family, on the other side of the room actually. She pointed at the chair across from her insistently and I nodded, my heart already going double time in my chest.

I got my food and then went to my usual table to fetch my bag and guitar. "Alice wants me to sit with her today," I informed them when I got curious looks. I ignored the scowl on Maria's face and the smirk on Jesse's.

"What's with this?" I asked as I sat down, referring to her being away from her family.

"Edward and I are quarreling this week," she replied candidly. Then she smiled and leaned towards me. "At least, that's my excuse. Mostly I just want to spend more time with you."

My ego felt thoroughly stroked. "What'd you do this weekend?"

"Well the weather was actually kind of ok, so Carlisle took us all camping out at Bear Lake," she replied, picking at her food with the tines of the plastic forks they gave us. "What about you?"

"Oh, some Saturday school, some snow shoveling, nothing big. I spent some time learning a new song." _Stared at my ceiling thinking about you. Like I said, nothing big._

Alice leaned forward, her golden eyes shining with interest. "What song?"

"If I Die Young by The Band Perry, it's really sad and a girl sings it, but I really like it so," I shrugged," I thought it would be neat to learn it." I took a bite from my burger.

"I've never heard it. Will you play it?" She was looking at me from under her long eyelashes and I felt the burger turn to stone in my throat.

"Uh, well…" I looked at my guitar beside the table and then back at her.

"Don't tell me you're shy," she laughed. "Not after that show you put on on your first day of school."

"No, it's just…I don't know it very well yet. I just have the chorus down. I don't like playing for people if I'm not amazing at it." I caught the flash of disappointment that flitted over her face. "I'll totally play it when I've got it down though. Don't listen to it 'til I play it. I'll work hard to learn the whole thing."

This seemed to raise her mood. She sat still for a second, her eyes kind of vacant. I was about to reach out and shake her when she focused on me again, a huge smile splitting her face. "It won't take you very long, I'm sure."

I nodded.

Tuesday I sat with Alice again and we discussed our favorite books. If it weren't for Jinx I know I would've grown up not reading a thing other than magazines, but my best friend had given me a healthy interest in literature. Alice still had me beat though. I was surprised to hear that we did have one book/series in common on our top five favorites.

"Those are the most amazing books I've read in the genre, I only like Crest of the Stars more cause of how deep the author has gone into showing the Abh's. But yeah, my favorite part of those books was right at the very beginning in the introduction. When he talks about nailing a man to a tree just for suggesting everyone be nice to each other for a change? Best part."

Wednesday we devoted to movies, both our favorites and our guilty pleasures. Alice refused to tell me hers until she heard mine.

My favorite movie of all time was so obvious she guessed it before I could say anything. The others she couldn't guess. "Let's see…Real Genius, Tombstone, All About Eve, and Princess Bride."

"Oh my God! I love Princess Bride!" She honestly looked like she was about to bounce out of her seat as she clapped happily.

I chuckled. "Anyone who doesn't like the Princess Bride should be shot. It's the best movie ever."

Alice nodded along with every word I said. "It's definitely in my top five. Edward hates it though. I quote it in my head just to piss him off sometimes."

I forced my face into seriousness. "I'll go get my gun."

Alice broke into a fit of giggles.

Then something she had said finally registered. "What did you mean by that? That you quote it in your head. Why would that bother him?"

She laughed nervously, "Did I say that? I meant out loud."

I could tell she wasn't being completely honest but I dropped it.

That afternoon I got my uniform for ROTC in the mail. When I showed up to school in it Alice spent most of Government sending me covert looks. When we finally got a chance to talk she leaned in close and told me I looked amazing. I could barely breathe all through lunch because of the looks she was giving me. Speaking was a near impossibility.

"Am I making you nervous?"

I chuckled nervously. "A little. No one has ever been quite so …upfront towards me I suppose."

She smirked. "I'm a woman, I like men. If that means I'm not "lady-like", then I guess I'm just not a lady! At least I'm honest."

_God! Can she be any more perfect?_ "You're different. No arguin' that. But you're a lady alright. I'd take my oath on it."

It was odd to think of myself as a man, I surely didn't feel like one. I felt like I was a kid still and was going to be a kid forever. I knew realistically that I was going to be an adult in a few short months, but I still felt far removed from the reality. Alice certainly seemed to think of me as one though, and there was no way to think of her as anything _but _a woman. She was no wide eyed girl, that was for damn sure.

Friday we began talking about music, but then halfway through lunch something that I'd been noticing all week finally bothered me enough to ask about it.

She never once ate her lunch. She bought it every day but ended up just picking at it or tearing it up.

"Aren't you going to eat?" I asked, stuffing my own burger in my mouth as I did.

Alice looked up as if surprised I'd noticed. Her ochre eyes were wide. "Oh, I'm not really hungry."

I looked over her tiny frame pointedly. "You haven't been hungry all week?"

She seemed to catch what I was insinuating and looked offended. "I don't have an eating disorder!"

I shrugged. "Ok."

"I don't! Don't you think this food is disgusting?" she demanded.

Looks like I had embarrassed her. "Sure I do, but I've had worse."

"Like what?" she demanded.

"Head cheese," I replied promptly, "oh and blood sausage. Blood sausage was the worst; just thinking about it makes me want to gag." She was silent, just watching me with those large lovely eyes. "It wasn't the taste," I continued. "It was the texture, like firm Jell-O." I shuddered. "What about you?"

"Rabbit," she informed me, just as promptly.

"And the best?"

"I really like bear."

"I've never had it. I've heard it's tough."

She smirked. "It depends on how you serve it."

The weekends blurred into weekdays witch continued the same way. On Saturday I would go to my detention and then I would help Josh in the yard. Sunday I would practice the guitar and talk to Jinx. He was cross most of the time. There was a lot for him to go through. I wasn't much help. He had always been the brains to my charm. During the week I would do my work and eat lunch with Alice. We continued to get to know each other with silly top five lists. Favorite colors, smells, languages, vehicles, mythical creatures, whatever popped into our heads.

It was bliss.

I should've known it wouldn't last.

**jwjwjw**

The 25th of January dawned grey and cold, as I'd come to expect. I started my day just like always but Josh stopped me in the hall.

"I'm taking Jenny and the kids to Minneapolis this weekend to see a show. We're leaving tonight and we would be back late Sunday. You're welcome to come with us, but you'd miss your Saturday school this week."

"Would I still be grounded next week?" I asked.

"Yep."

I sighed and rolled my eyes. Josh never went back on his word, good or bad. "I'll just stay here. Thanks anyway."

"Sure. Get to school."

I had two tests at school, both of which I aced. Lunch was spent discussing my love for history and her love for fashion. I knew enough about the latter to know that her clothes and shoes were high dollar. She seemed highly entertained with my reasoning behind how Napoleon was the Jack Sparrow of France.

Home was chaotic when I arrived. Jenny pulled me into packing the last of the luggage while she went to pick up Katie. Josh got home two hours early and I helped him load the car. Before long they were gone and I was left alone at the house.

I thought briefly of breaking the rules of my grounding by leaving the house. It was already dark though and I didn't have anyone's number but Alice. I didn't want to bother her. After awhile I decided to rebel by watching TV.

I fell asleep watching campy horror movies on the couch.

Hazy dreams kept me turning over and over through the night. I dreamed of running through a forest with branches snatching at my shirt. Then I was in a rocky pass looking up at a cougar with a bloody, caved-in head. Next there was a lake shore and a smiling Alice was dragging a bear carcass behind her, blood on her face. After that it was like a scene straight out of The Mummy, flesh eating beetles crawling under my skin. More followed.

I woke up tired and nearly too late to make it to Saturday school. My last one, thankfully.

I shoveled the snow off the walk just like I had for the past three weeks, thinking Josh would want me to even if he hadn't asked. I sang under my breath as I did the chore, thinking only of getting into the warm house and practicing that song again so I could sing it for Alice. I was nearly perfect at it.

**jwjwjw**

Jinx called me not a minute after I logged into facebook that night.

"I'm going to be sending you links, but I wanted to talk to you about all this 'cause there's a lot. Too much to type."

"Nice to hear from you too. How's the family?" I responded, leaning back in my chair.

"Shove it Whitlock, this is serious business."

"Fine, fine. What's so important?"

"I think I've figured this all out."

That did peak my interest. So far in our little investigation I would just give Jinx information and he would grump at me about how much work he had to do. "Well by all means, share your knowledge."

"Well in the first place, Cullen might not exactly be a common name, but it's definitely not unique either. And Hale is worse, that one is common. But that being said, there's still way too much paper work for this family. Really, you'd think if they were trying to hide something they'd change their names more often. That Rosalie chick hasn't changed hers ever."

"What are you even talking about? Why would they change their names?"

"Because they aren't human! This Rosalie for example, I have records of her dating back to the twenties."

"You just said Hale was a common name, Rosalie could be too ya know, especially way back then," I argued.

"Yes, that's true. But all of them standing 5'9'' and weighing 143 lbs, blonde hair and yellow eyes?"

"Uh…"

"Yeah, and it gets weirder. The rest of them occasionally change their names, but usually they just switch around their given and middle names. I've found records of Dr. Cullen that date back to the 1800s. I mean, sure, this could just be Tuck Everlasting, but I really doubt it 'cause of all the other stuff."

I felt like my brain had shorted. I barely even heard Jinx mutter at me to hold on a minute.

"Dude! They own a fucking island!" Jinx cried suddenly, breaking through my jumbled thoughts.

"What?" I demanded, leaning forward in my chair. Jinx forwarded the link to me. I clicked on the pictures and flipped through them. The island was small, as far as islands went, but lovely and simple. It was apparently located off the coast of Brazil and held only one building. It was probably a sort of summer home. "Man, I'm starting to really hate these guys."

Jinx barked a laugh over the phone. "I've told you that there are records of a Carlisle Cullen or similar in the Americas going back to 1800 and the fact that they own an island is all you can focus on? I have to say I'm worried about your brain damage. But for real, I'd like to meet this doctor guy and tell him to fire whoever does his forgeries. I've busted through these files way too many times. I mean, they're good, but I'm better and it wasn't even that hard."

"I'll put in a good word for you," I mentioned snidely. I was still flipping through the records that Jinx had dug up.

"Thanks man, you know I'm always looking for work."

More links appeared on my IM screen. They were maps of Minnesota that Jinx had marked on to point out certain areas. There were big red circles around Gilbert and some small lakes to the east. "What are these for?"

"Well ya know how you told me that she went camping out at Bear Lake last weekend?"

"Yeah," I replied. I couldn't see any sort of connection.

"Well, I researched the area and it turns out that there is a large population of black bears in the area. And you also said that she mentioned that she liked bear…but bear season ended in November."

"So?" I wondered.

"Well, let's look at the facts. Alice Cullen is 4' 11' and an even 105 pounds. She has black hair and her driver's license says her eyes are yellow. You've told me her skin is icy cold to the touch, even if she's been inside for a long time. You've also told me she's hard, like rock and that her skin doesn't indent under a moderate touch. She smells impossibly sweet, but uses unscented soap and detergent-"

"Wait, how the hell do you know that?" I demanded. I'd never told him anything like that. I hadn't asked about Alice's clothes washing habits…or her bathing habits.

_No, bad Jasper, bad!_

"Dude, I'm the best. You're girl might wear expensive labels, but she buys her soap from Walmart. I can hack that. Alice likes to use daddy's plastic."

His genius amazed me and I told him so.

"Thanks, anyway. Her scent draws you in. Every week her eyes change from gold to black but she doesn't wear contacts. In fact, you claim her sight is better than normal. She's super fast and mad strong. I have records that match her description dating back to 1956, but you claim she appears to be about eighteen years old. The full moon seems to not affect her in any way, positive or negative and she is rather obviously not a zombie. I've compiled the evidence and come to two conclusions."

"So you're saying…"

"The Cullen family is rather obviously not human. I bet you ten bucks they're vamps. But I'm also betting they don't kill humans."

Another link appeared and I followed it. It was a sight dedicated to different myths about vampires. None of the descriptions were very complimentary.

The hand holding the phone to my ear felt like dead weight at the thought that Alice could be a vampire. "How do you gather?" I queried, my voice sounded far away. What other way could there be. If Alice was a vampire she had to drink blood.

Jinx was getting excited. He was talking nearly too fast for me to understand. "Well think about it man. They have a semi-permanent residence. According to all these records I dug up they move around every four to six years, and sometimes they disappear completely for a little while. But while they're in one place they can't risk drawing any more attention to themselves than they do already. They wouldn't be able to kill a bunch of humans every time they felt thirsty. Going by what you've told me, Alice's eyes change color every week, so that must mean that she goes and get's a belly full of blood every weekend. Assume it would only take one adult human to fill her up for the week. If she was doing that, small as she is, just think about how much blood it must take for her muscle head brother to get full. Plus there are seven of them. Seven animal attacks or disappearances every week? I don't think so. I looked up the death statistics of Gilbert. Guess how many animal attacks there were last year."

"I don't know, twenty?" I picked a random number.

Jinx laughed. "Try two, and there was only one disappearance."

"So if they aren't killing humans how are they staying alive?"

"Dude, it's so simple. Animals." I was silent for a moment while I thought over what he said. It did make sense, in a strange way. Jinx continued in a more sedate tone when I didn't reply. "You said yourself that you nearly hit two deer on your way there, just outside the city limits. And who would care if they came across a deer carcass with its throat ripped out? No one. Plus, that camping trip to black bear central? Alice likes bear."

"She does like bear," I echoed hollowly.

"This isn't even considering any special talents. You mentioned that she said she quoted a movie in her head to piss off her brother. Maybe it _was_ just a slip up…but what if he can read thoughts?"

We were both silent now. There was just the sound of our breathing. It was so quiet that the sound of the house settling, a nearly silent creaking noise, made me jump.

"Jasper," Jinx finally said, no longer sounding confident or excited, "if all this is true, if you're not just pulling a fast one on me, you…we could be in serious trouble right now."

I desperately wanted to just laugh. I wanted to blow the whole thing off as a huge joke that I had pulled him into, but the truth struck me as so absolute that I couldn't even think of waving it off.

He was right, we were in trouble. No one would go to so much trouble to hide something from everyone if they cared about it getting out. Jinx and I knew a secret, a dangerous one, and as far as I knew, our lives could now be forfeit.

I thought over the past weeks. Alice had seemed to really like me, but I now had to wonder how much of that had been real. I looked back at the links Jinx had sent me.

Vampire: Master of seduction.

Had it all been a game? An attempt to seduce me into loving her and then she could have me for dinner when I was too far gone to fight her off?

_Do I love her?_ This question was harder. I knew what love was. I loved my family and my friends. I certainly loved Alice in that way at least, but was I in love with her? I knew I lusted for her. She was beautiful, absolutely enchanting in every way. It was more than just wanting to have sex with her. I'd wanted to have sex with dozens of girls before, so that was nothing new. I knew though, that I wanted much more than to just have meaningless sex with Alice Cullen. I would deny to the end of my days that I had ever even thought something so corny, but I wanted to spend my life loving her.

I would die for her.

And that was a problem.

For a moment I panicked. If I was willing to die for her, I could die because of her too. She was endlessly strong, and if size was anything to go by, the rest of them would be even stronger. If she had already been planning on killing me, the fact that I knew her secret would definitely be the clincher.

The panic lasted only a short few seconds before I was hardened by resolve. Alice could find me. Alice could kill me. But I could make sure Jinx was safe. No one was going to get hurt on my account.

"Jinx," I finally whispered into the mouth piece, "Red Five."

When Jinx and I were little kids we got into a fair amount of trouble with each other. One hot July day we had retired to my tree house for a little rest from our mischief and decided that we should come up with a secret code in order to pass messages to each other when there was a possibility of trouble. The Red codes, of which there were five, we about hiding what we'd done. Red Five was the most serious; destroy all evidence through any means necessary. As children we had decided that it could even mean hiding bodies. We were a little morbid.

This was the first time we had had to go up to Red Five. It was the first time we had done something serious. This wasn't kid stuff.

Jinx breathed a shaky sigh. "I'm sending you my virus now. Just download the attachment. I hope you have your music backed up. I'm going to hack into the phone records and destroy or histories. I assume you want the phones gone too?"

"Affirmative."

My computer dinged as I received the email. I clicked it open and downloaded the attachment. Almost immediately my computer was overrun by error messages. Less than a minute later it shut off completely and the room was thrust into complete darkness.

"It's gone," I told him.

"As soon as we hang up I'll delete our activity and then I'll destroy my computer."

"Good. I think this situation also calls for a Black Four, condition 72."

Jinx breathed deeply. "It's been a pleasure serving under you Major. I look forward to hearing from you." The line went dead.

Black Four, condition 72: If I didn't contact him in seventy-two hours, he was to assume me dead.

We were really morbid. I couldn't help but grin. I wished we were still kids, nothing serious ever happened back then.

I dropped my phone on the floor and stepped on it until it crunched in tiny pieces under my boot heel. I left the mess where it was and sat back in my chair, leaning forward so my forehead rested on my knees. I put my hands around the back of my neck and just concentrated on breathing. I thought I heard the house settle again.

My thoughts were racing.

_Alice knows things before they happen .I don't know how but she does. She could know that I know. She could be on her way here right now. I wish Josh was here. No, it's good that he's not. If she could kill me she could kill them, no problem. Maybe she won't kill me. Maybe they won't know. I can just pretend I have no idea what's going on. What they are…No, it's too much. I'd act different. I'm not _that_ good a liar. This is too much to lie about._

I pulled at the soft thin hair at the nape of my neck. The house creaked again, louder this time.

And then she was there. I could smell her. Her scent wrapped around me and tried to lull me into a false sense of security. Instead, I was on my feet and on the opposite side of the room before I even gave my feet the order to move.

Alice looked just the same as she had earlier that afternoon. She had the same beautiful pixie face; her eyes were still nearly black; she didn't look the part of a blood-thirsty killer in her expensive clothes.

Alice took a step closer.

"Stay away from me," I demanded, my voice taking a hysterical edge. She stopped like she'd been nailed down, her expression as heartbroken as if I'd struck her. I didn't fall into it.

"Jasper, please-"

"No! No, I don't think so, whatever it is." I stared at her for a long time. She didn't try to come closer, just stood impossibly still in the center of my room like a tiny marble statue. I don't even think she was breathing. My heart marched double time in my chest. Here, in the dark, with just the moon for light, she really did look like a creature of the night. "You are one, aren't you?

"What?" she asked, but not in confusion. She almost sounded defeated. Did she just want me to say it out loud so she could have reason to kill me? Proof?

"Don't play innocent with me! Answer the question!" I was aware that I was roaring my demands at her.

She shrank back a little and then bowed her head. For just a few seconds there was silence. When she looked up her face was set, tightened by resolve just like mine. "Yes, I'm a vampire."

**JWJWJW**

**Please Don't Hate Me…**

**!CONTEST!**

**Question the first: What is Jasper's number one favorite movie? (Hint: He referenced it in the previous chapter, both by title character and director.)**

**Question the second: What book series was Jasper talking about when he and Alice discussed their favorite books? (Hint: It's a Sci-fi series, they made a movie about it, there's a depressed robot in it.)**

**Question the third: During one of Jasper and Alice's lunch talks they had a conversation that is a direct quote from one of Jasper's favorite movies. What was the conversation? What movie was it from? (Hint: It's not from Jasper's number one.)**

**You have to answer all the questions right in order to win a sneak peak. Submit your answers in a review. If you guess right I will contact you through PM (or e-mail if you review anonymously) with your sneak peak. :D**

**Good Luck**


	8. Explanations

**Sunset**

**Chapter Seven- Explanations**

**A/N: Several people have made comments about how it seemed like Alice was slipping little vampire things out too easily.**

**That will be explained, in part at least, in this chapter.**

**By the way…did you guys know that Jinx was not an OC? He's a real Twilight character. Jinx is just his nickname. Tell me his real name before it appears in the story (it shouldn't appear for at least three more chapters) and you'll get a treat.**

**ALSO, FlyingFleshEater now has a fan page on facebook. I'll be posting all sorts of stuff there. Look it up. Become a fan…go on, you know you want to.**

**JWJWJW**

Heartbreak is an odd feeling. On one hand I felt consumed by anger. It was like a fire was out of control in my belly and chest. Like there was smoke in my charred throat. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't see, there was a strange film clouding my vision. I blinked quickly, not wanting to lose sight of the…creature standing in the middle of my room. It was only then that I realized that it had been tears clouding my vision. I had been betrayed. All of my trust was placed in her tiny hands. If I had known what those hands could do...but there was also the other thing.

The worst thing, the most loathsome thing, was that everything was changed and nothing was. I still felt the same for Alice even as I feared her.

The longer we stood in silence the more awkward it became. I was, understandably, very upset. She was also upset and it was making me upset. More upset than I already was because of the huge truth that had just washed over me.

I couldn't even think straight. I shook my rebelling thoughts by the metaphorical shoulders. I had to look at the facts.

The woman I was in love with was a vampire.

She was standing in my room.

She was thirsty.

The anger and fear that had filled me before turned into defeat. It seeped into my bones and left feeling weary in body and mind. The sigh that came out of me was that of a man with the world on his shoulders. I rubbed my hands over my face; first scrubbing at my eyes and then passing my hand over my stubbly chin a few times, as I sank to the floor.

I looked up at her. "You're a vampire?"

"Yes."

"You have preternatural speed?"

Suddenly she was in front of me. I gasped and my entire body tried to break through the wall behind me. She just gazed at me with those deep black eyes. "Yes."

"A-and strength?" This was hard for me, both as a man and as someone who had been attacked by a wild thing before. I'd felt the pain of flesh tearing. Here, in my room and bathed in moonlight, glowing like an angel with coal black eyes, she looked like a wild thing. It was also hard to admit to myself that this tiny, delicate looking woman could tear me apart.

Her sweet breath washed over my face as she knelt slowly beside me and I felt a little dizzy. She reached out in a lightning quick movement and I braced myself for pain. Instead I found the tender cold of her fingers stroking one of my swollen wrists. Her touch was so light that I wouldn't have believed it real if I couldn't see her fingers touching me. The contradiction to her affirmation was startling. It made me begin to think that she wasn't going to kill me. Why show kindness when you're planning to hurt someone?

"You drink blood, don't you?" I whispered. Her face was so close to mine and it made it hard to think.

She bit her lip and my eyes were drawn to the perfectly straight line of her teeth on that pale pink flesh. They had the luminance of pearls, white but green and blue and pink as the light shifted over them. I gulped when she nodded.

"From people?" My voice sounded too small for my body, but this question was the kicker.

"I try not to," she whispered. I was captivated for a moment by her long dark lashes on her pale cheeks, but then her words translated into meaning in my brain. _Tries. She tries not to. _"I'm usually extremely successful too." _Usually._

"God," I muttered, throwing my head back onto the wall behind me causing a pleasant clunking sound, "could my life get any worse?" I continued before she could respond. "I mean, my mom _dies_ 'cause she's allergic to cats. That's lame beyond all reasoning. I get shipped here, the ass-crack of nowhere, to freeze my nuts off every day and have to obey my _brother_ like he's my parent or something. And now my girlfriend is a vampire!" I faked laughter like it was funny.

I realized what I had just said right when Alice parroted it. "Girlfriend?"

My back went ramrod straight and I stared at Alice with wide eyes. She looked as surprised as I did. "Ah, no! No, that wasn't true. The girlfriend part. The rest was all true just not that part." My stammering continued down that path until my mind registered Alice's giggles and her breath tickling past my ear. I felt heat flood my face and buried my head in my arms. "Ugh! Just kill me now. Get it over with so I don't have to live with this embarrassment." I was tensed in preparation for pain and so I flinched when she finally spoke.

"I'm not going to kill you," her voice was barely there but the noise had been enough to startle me. I was too high strung.

I looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. "Not that I believe you, but why? I mean, I don't want to assume, but this whole secret vampire thing seems like a BIG DEAL!"

"Oh, it is," she confirmed with a tense smile, my eyes were drawn to her teeth again. I noticed the lack of fangs for the first time. "And usually that would be the rule. Human finds out, they either have to be changed or killed." She looked down again. "But...you're...special."

If sarcasm poured like water, what came from me would have filled a five gallon tub. "Oh yay me."

Alice shuffled closer to me, "Jasper, I'm serious."

"Hey, hey! You're close enough thanks!" I barked. I even felt my back curl up like I had hackles to raise. She wasn't holding my wrist anymore but I was close enough to feel the chill radiating off of her skin. I scooted away.

Hurt flashed across her face and I thought her eyes looked a little shiny. It was a devastating picture and it baffled me that God would put me through this too. "Jasper, I promise, no I swear, I'm not going to hurt you." She paused and I could see that her eyes were unfocused. I had seen this look several times over the past weeks and anytime it happened I would be treated to some sort of cryptic response when she regained her focus. She shook her head minutely and turned the full force of her gaze on me. "What can I do to make you believe me?" Her question was so sincere, her face so earnest, that I felt my heart soften a little.

I tried to muster a glare but my eyes just couldn't hold the emotion. I looked away, down to the remnants of my shattered phone and sighed. "I don't know what it really matters. It's not like I could do anything about it if you do decide to kill me."

I saw her shrug out of the corner of my eye. "True."

I snapped my head around fast enough for my neck to pop. "Not helpful!" Another sigh pulled from me. She looked at me from under her lashes and mouthed the word 'sorry'. It almost made me smile. Almost. "I just…I trusted you. I believed everything you told me."

"Everything I've said to you was true. Well, ok, there was one thing, but it's not important right now. Jasper, I'm still the same person I was an hour ago. The Princess Bride is my favorite movie, I can't stand anything written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, my favorite color is yellow, I love shopping, and it hurts my feelings when those stupid girls at school say mean things about me when they think I can't hear them. That's who I am, you know me; and I want to know you, every little thing there could be to know about. I never lied to you about anything that mattered. Did I even once tell you that I was human?"

It was true; she was exactly the same as an hour ago. She was the same person she was last week, and last month, and last year, and who knows how many years before that. Vampires were supposed to be immortal. How long had she been perfect, beautiful, tiny Alice Cullen? I scowled, my anger returning just enough. "Lying by omission is just as bad. God! I just can't believe…I can't believe that I thought you…" I stopped. The words were in my mouth but I couldn't force them out. I didn't want her to see me that weak. Weaker than she already did, I was sure. My eyes burned.

"What?" Her voice was like silk, and nearly too soft for me to hear. She was waiting for something, like she knew what I wanted to say. I smirked without humor. She probably did know.

I huffed and ran my hands through my hair. "I thought you had feelings for me."

"Oh, Jazz," she moved closer to me on her knees, her hands reaching for me.

"Please don't," I begged. She ignored me and I felt her icy hands on my cheeks. I kept my eyes fixed on my jean covered knees. I traced a few of the rough fibers with my eyes.

_I might as well just get the word 'sissy' tattooed on my forehead. I'm such a loser_.

"Jasper," she cooed, pressing gently on my jaw. I managed to resist. "Please look at me."

My reluctant gaze met hers.

She screwed up her face in concentration, looking for the right words to turn me down gently no doubt. "Vampires think differently about love than humans tend to. There are no breakups, no do-overs. When a vampire falls in love, it's quite literally forever."

"So you're saying…"

She sighed in frustration, her hands sliding into my hair. Unbelievable pleasure spiked through me when her tiny hands fisted against my scalp. She was so cold, so close. She leaned forward and rested her forehead against mine. Her eyelids fluttered closed and she breathed deeply, her jaw muscles twitching visibly. I felt my own breath growing shallow; I could taste the sweetness in the air between us. And the danger. After a long moment her eyes opened and bore into mine, her cold fingers were cupping my cheeks. "You've kept me waiting a long time."

For a moment I was just confused and said the first thing that came to mind. "I'm sorry."

Her mouth split into a beaming grin and I had to resist the urge to recoil violently from her teeth so close to my face. "I knew you were going to say that."

"Yeah," I managed through my dry mouth. "How is that, by the way?"

She was gone suddenly and it took my eyes a second to adjust to the lack of her. I looked furtively around my small room and spotted her perched on the edge of my bed. My heart was palpitating at a rate more suited for a jack hammer.

I couldn't help my automatic response. As soon as my brain registered that Alice was on my bed, my thoughts took a decisive turn towards the gutter. I flushed at my train of thought and clamped my legs together tightly. I prayed that she couldn't read thoughts too.

"It's complicated."

"Think I can keep up?"

"Probably." She paused. "It did take you a really long time to figure it all out though. I dropped some really big hints."

"Wait, you wanted me to know that you're a vampire?"

"Of course." She crossed her legs at the knee and I felt my mouth dry up again.

"Confused again," I managed.

She giggled. "I'll speak slowly and use small words." I nodded. "I can see the future."

"You can do what?" I demanded, though I didn't really feel surprised. I had known really, but her confirmation of the fact made it seem somehow more unreal.

"I can see things that have not yet happened," Alice said slower than before. I knew I should feel a bit insulted at least, but I was unable to truly focus on her tone.

"I…so…I…is the world going to end in 2012?" I choked out finally. I immediately regretted it, fearing she was going to think me impaired.

She just giggled again. "I can't see things like that. I can only see the futures of those close to me. I see vampires best, but there are some humans, like you, that I can see. Further, I can only see something when a decision is made. I see the result of that decision."

"So, did you see me coming? Is that why you said I'd kept you waiting?" I demanded.

"Yes. I've seen you for a long time."

"How long?" I questioned, half fearful of her answer.

She just watched me for a moment, her wide dark eyes taking in everything about me. I wondered if she was looking into the future.

"You were the first thing I saw when I was born into this life," she finally informed me.

My breath caught. _Okay, that's heavy._

Her gaze was far away when she continued speaking. "I searched for you for years. I scoured every city I came to, stopping only to hunt. During my search I began to get visions of others of my kind, they, unlike me, did not hunt humans. I began to try and find them as well; there was just something about them that drew me. I switched my diet to match there's and found that I was happier when I was no longer killing the innocent. I found them in 1956. It wasn't long after that when I realized you didn't even exist yet. I saw a vision of you as a child, you were no older than three and you were using a calendar as a coloring page. I saw the date. I cried for days. In all the other visions of you, I had seen you as one of my kind. I had assumed it was only a matter of time before I found you, and then to learn that I would have to wait fifty years before I could ever see you. It was the worst kind of torture."

"Why? I mean, you just had to wait right?"

"And waiting for something you want with all of your being is easy, right?"

I promptly felt like an ass. My cheeks were hot when I looked down at the floor between my feet. "How many of the myths are true then?" I asked finally.

She sighed and shifted on my bed. The frame didn't squeak as she moved to lie on her back. I gulped and tried not to stare as she made herself comfortable. "Barely any." She picked up my deer pillow and crushed it to her chest. "Blood drinking, but we've covered that I think."

"Yes."

"Hmm, all those myths related to Christianity are untrue. Garlic isn't a bother. Staking through the heart is impossible and wouldn't kill us even if it could be done."

"What do you mean?"

"Vampires are very hard to kill. We're like solid rock, or perhaps diamond is a better word. Only other vampires can hurt us." She paused. "Well, that and fire. There's no bit of wood that would even put a dent in me."

"And the blood thing…how does that go? The not drinking from humans part, I mean."

"It's difficult. Sometimes more difficult than it should be. Like the day you and Louis decided to act like idiots. Free flowing blood, you covered in it…it was almost impossible. I held my breath the entire time. Now too, I'm very thirsty, and you are not unappetizing." I shivered. "Sorry." The silence lasted a beat. "It takes hard work, but I haven't had an…_accident_ in a long time."

I shivered again. She didn't apologize this time.

"Can you turn into a bat?" I had been moving closer to my bed as she talked, scooting on my butt until my head was close enough to rest against the side of the mattress.

She gave me an unladylike snort that brought a grin to my face.

"No, nor do I sleep in a coffin." She turned her black gaze down to me. "I don't sleep at all, actually."

I couldn't think of anything to say to that. I stared for a moment. "That's gotta suck."

She smiled her sad smile. She unwound her right arm from my pillow and reached for me. I couldn't help but flinch when I noticed the movement. Her hand stilled in the air an inch from my head and then moved forward more carefully. The chill of her skin was less surprising now as she placed her hand on my cheek.

"You're tired, and unlike me, you do have to sleep. I should go."

Part of me wanted to protest vehemently. I didn't want her to go. I'd grown comfortable with the sweet smell of her in my room and the sound of her voice in my ears. Another part though wanted to shove her bodily from the room and the house. Her presence was off-putting. I had originally attributed that to my general nervousness around such a beautiful girl. Now that I knew what she was, I put the feeling down to self-preservation, no matter that she seemed willing to keep me alive. "We're not done yet." I wondered if I sounded like the lost little boy I felt like.

"I'll come back tomorrow. Bright and early, if you like." She smiled and ran her thumb over my cheek bone.

"I like."

"Good. See you then." She made a show of moving slowly so that I could see her. I scarcely breathed until I heard the sound of the downstairs door closing.

My room seemed a lot darker with her gone. I got up from my place on the floor and nearly ran to the pull string for the light. The single bulb flickered to life and cast yellow light around my small room. Only the corners were dark now. I looked at my small window and wished I had a curtain. I was suddenly afraid of seeing a face peering in at me. I shivered at the thought and began to jerkily get out of my clothes.

In just my boxers I climbed into bed with the light still on and pulled the covers up to my chin. My deer pillow was lying on the other side of the bed on top of the comforter. I eyed it warily, as if it would suddenly fly at my face and smother me.

I looked up at my light, letting the brightness burn my eyes.

Of three things, I was absolutely certain. First, Alice Cullen was a vampire. Second, there was a part of her, and I wasn't sure how dominant that part may be, that thirsted for my blood. Third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with her.

**JWJWJW**

**Okay, so, I hope I did that justice. I find it difficult to write emotional scenes so this whole chapter was an exercise in patience. It's shorter than some of the recent chapters too, partly because it was so hard to write, but also, those other chapters just ran away from me. All the chapters of this story were originally meant to be around 3000 words.**

**So yeah, hope you liked it…think I said that already. But anyway. I'm back at school now so I don't get as much time to write. I want to see if I can get 200 reviews by my next update, but if I get the chapter finished really quickly I'll settle for 180. I've got it started so I'll just see how that goes then.**

**REMEMEBER**

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**Also, tell me who Jinx is from the Twilight series and I'll give you a treat.**


	9. Kidnapping

**Sunset**

**Chapter Eight- Kidnapping**

**JWJWJW**

I woke suddenly, my eyes flying open and my breath catching in between my chest and the pillow my face was pressed against. I had been dreaming, I don't know what of, when a noise had woken me. I bolted into a sitting position.

Alice was standing near my book case, sheepishly standing my guitar back up from where it had fallen. "Sorry, my jacket caught on it." I just stared at her and she stared back. Her eyes flicked briefly down from my eyes and then back. She looked guilty.

Then I remembered that I was only wearing boxers. I felt my face flame up as I scrambled for the covers. "What are you even doing here?" I squawked. I felt decidedly effeminate as I clutched the sheet to my bare chest. It was like every romantic comedy where hilarious misunderstandings happened, only I was in place of the beautiful heroine who had to win the heart of the dashing male lead.

_Shouldn't Alice be the one holding a sheet to her chest?_

My brain tried to go off on a tangent, but I forced myself to think about the vampire in the room first.

"I came to see you. It's bright and early, just like I promised." Her voice was chipper but she was looking at everything except me.

"Guh," I croaked, wiping drool off my chin and searching franticly for something I could use to cover my scared chest.

"Are you always this ruffled in the morning?" Alice asked, suddenly holding a plain undershirt out to me. I hadn't seen her move and I jumped.

"Only recently," I replied gruffly as I jerked the shirt over my head.

I looked up at her to find that she was watching me intently. My cheeks felt even hotter than before and a scowl pulled down my eyebrows.

"I'm sorry, I'm making you uncomfortable." She shuffled her feet and looked away. "When is your family returning?"

"Tonight. I don't know exactly."

"Good, then I'm kidnapping you for the day," she informed me, back to being cheerful. "Go take a shower and get dressed. You'll need to be warm." She was gone before I could blink, most likely in an attempt to keep me from complaining.

I complained anyway. "What do you mean 'kidnapping'?" I asked the empty room.

She didn't reply so I got out of bed. I collected some clothes out of my dresser, grabbing my thermal underpants when I remembered that Alice said I would need to be warm.

The shower was bliss. I let the hot stream pound away the tension in my neck and shoulders. By the time I allowed myself to exit the shower I was relaxed and looking forward to what the day would bring. A whole morning, afternoon, and evening with Alice? I was probably going to lose my shit over how awesome that was.

The relaxing atmosphere was ruined before I even pulled on my boxers.

A high pitched wailing rang through the whole house and I felt my heart leap into my throat. I jumped in surprise and stumbled back, hitting my elbow painfully on the bathroom counter. I whined at the ache even as I ran from the bathroom, securing my towel back around my waist. I knew that noise.

I just wondered what Alice had set on fire.

It didn't take me long to find out at all. It was the stove.

I assumed by the various props on the scene that she had been attempting to cook and it had gone horribly wrong. My brother's family employed a gas powered stove and the butane flames were roaring over the sides of a skillet filled with burned crisps of what used to be eggs. Alice was curled in the farthest corner of the kitchen from the stove, staring at the fire with panicked gold eyes.

I marched across the space determinedly and located an oven mitt before using it to help me turn off the gas to the stove and then remove the hot pan from the burner. I through the skillet into the sink and flinched when I heard a dish break.

I was sure to catch hell for that.

I turned the sink on and let the cold water hit the hot metal, the loud hiss and cloud of steam was likeplessing. It told my mind that the action was over.

Once I had turned off the water and left the pan to soak, I moved to Alice, crouching in front over her and observing her state.

She was gasping loudly and her pupils were blown. She was focused beyond me and I wondered if she even noticed my presence. I didn't want to touch her when she was in that sort of state so I snapped my fingers in front of her face a few times.

She jumped and looked right at me.

_Improvement._

"Hey, hey, hey," I called in as calm a voice as I could manage. I had to swallow a few times to get some spit back in my mouth. "It's ok, it could happen to anyone. There's no need to panic."

She shuddered against the cabinet and the doors banged. "If I had a heart beat it would be so fast right now," she confessed. She swallowed and looked me in the eye. I felt better to see that her pupils were shrinking. "I don't like fire."

"Ok." I nodded, remembering what she had said the night before about fire being one of the only ways to kill her. I noticed the way she was cradling her arms against her chest. "Are you hurt?"

She closed her eyes and sniffled, shaking her head. "No, I'm fine." Despite the fact that she shed no actual tears, I knew she was crying by the way her shoulders quaked.

I dropped from my crouch to stand on my knees. "Baby," I cooed, "come here." I was a little nervous to have her close to me, but she was a girl and she was crying and I was kind of in love with her, so it was something I felt like I needed to do. Men are supposed to comfort and protect their women, and even though Alice didn't really need any kind of protection from me, I still felt that natural urge welling up under my skin. Alice apparently still had the instinct to be held too, because she slid in to the circle of my arms without complaint or further prompting.

This time I was the one gasping. In the excitement I had completely forgotten that I was only wearing a towel, and her hands and face were cold. I jerked and tried to pull away, but she whined and held me tighter, pushing her face against my neck. "I just wanted to make you some breakfast. I'd never done it before but I watched the cooking channel last night and it looked so easy."

I couldn't help the chuckle that eked out of me. "That's really sweet," I assured her, wrapping my arms completely around her and rocking from side to side. After a minute she pulled away, just enough to look up at me. I looked down so our eyes met, grinning happily at her. She didn't exactly match my smile, but there was a quirk to her lips that made her whole face more enchanting. Her gaze was intense and focused on mine, so when she stared for several seconds beyond what was comfortable I began to shift nervously.

She noticed and smiled a little wider. "I want to do something, and I want you to be a good boy and stay still for me." My heart was the only rebellious muscle in my body. The rest locked, but it sped its lusty contractions to double time.

Alice shifted back from me, her hands sliding from around my neck to rest on my bare shoulders. I felt self-conscious suddenly but I didn't move. The look in her eyes had nailed my knees to the tile.

She moved forward until our faces were just an inch apart, her cold nose gently brushing mine when I would exhale. I noticed that she wasn't breathing at all. We sat/kneeled in that awkward position for so long I thought I would have to pull away for sure because my knees were starting to ache.

And then she closed the distance and her lips were on mine.

I don't mean to brag, and I don't want to sound like a man-whore or anything, but I've kissed a lot of girls. And by 'a lot' I mean eight. I mean, I was kind of a stud back in Texas, and all the girls here had wanted me too. I considered myself super lucky that a girl as beautiful as Alice had even looked my way. So yeah, I was no stranger to making out with girls.

But kissing Alice was in a whole other ball park.

It was different, for sure, not even counting the fact that she was the shortest person I'd ever kissed so I had to lean down pretty far to make it comfortable for her. Her lips were just as hard and cold as the rest of her, and my lips were the ones yielding to her pressure instead of the other way around. I had let girls take control of kisses a few times in the past, but this time I wasn't able to turn the tables. Alice had complete control. Every time I would try to add more pressure she would pull away a little, when I would tilt my head to make the kiss deeper she would move in the same direction to prevent it. I tried to direct her with one of my hands in her hair, but she just smiled against my mouth and ignored me.

It was nice too. Sweet and simple. She kept her mouth mostly closed; only separating her lips enough to take my bottom one between hers for a few brief seconds.

She was the one to pull away first, her eyes wide and hair as mussed as it could be. She took a deep calming breath and fixed me with her molten gold stare.

I licked my lips and noted that she followed the path of my tongue. I could taste her on my mouth and she was just as sweet as she smelled.

"Wow."

She nodded and smiled shyly; biting her lip and drawing my eyes back to them. She giggled and I looked back up. Her smile was no longer shy, but teasing.

"What?"

"As much as I like seeing you nearly naked, this attire is completely inappropriate for what I have in mind for today."

I looked down, remembering my attire, and thanked God that the front of my towel wasn't tented. I scrambled to my feet and out of the room before she could tease me any further, and it wasn't until I was already dressed and pulling on my socks that I even realized that she had seen my scars.

She hadn't been freaked out at all.

**oooooo**

Alice's idea of a grand adventure and 'kidnapping' turned out to be playing in the snow in an old corn field three miles outside of town. She had pulled into a rarely used side street and parked there, leading me from the warmth of her car to the bitter chill of the field.

We made snow angels. Hers were perfect and mine looked more like circles than angels.

Then we made snow men like Calvin and Hobbs, which was something I had always wanted to do. It doesn't snow often in Texas and when it did there was never really enough to justify building a snow canon and a snow man with a hole blown in him.

We made several drowning snow men too, Alice disappearing into thin air for short periods to collect branches for arms and little rocks for the eyes and mouths.

When we got tired of building the men we trudged through the deep snow towards the stand of trees at the edge of the field and spent some time walking through the 'woods,' mostly silent and just enjoying the sound of snow crunching and each other's company.

As the morning faded into afternoon and my stomach started to protest the lack of food, we made our way back to Alice's car and she drove us back into town so I could eat.

After my quick lunch we just drove around aimlessly for a little while. Alice took me 'sightseeing,' which really wasn't that impressive in Gilbert, but she tried to make it interesting.

There was a big hill near the school that I had passed every day. It was always covered in snow and it looked like an awesome location for sledding, especially the backside because it didn't lead out to the street.

I suggested we try it out, and when Alice protested with a reference to our lack of sleds, I ran up to the nearest house with trash bins out front and took the lids. She was not impressed, but she followed me up the side of the hill anyway.

From the top, the drop looked a lot more daunting. But the smug look on Alice's face when I started to reconsider the idea clenched my decision.

"Let's do it."

Before Alice even opened her mouth to protest I had flung my makeshift sled down into the powdery snow and took my perch, pushing off with my arms.

I screeched from joy as I tore down the hill. The trashcan lid spun me around in circles and about halfway down the slope I felt the edge catch on something, a rock or a tree root probably. The lid tilted under me and in no time I was flying through the air, still screaming. I hit the snow hard and continued my way down the hill at a roll. My forward momentum was stopped by a snowdrift that had accrued at the bottom. I landed on my back and watched breathlessly as the snow went up in a fountain around me.

As I struggled to regain my breath I became aware of the sounds of running feet approaching my bed of snow. Within seconds Alice's face appeared above me. She smoothed my hair away from my face carefully.

"Are you ok?" she demanded when I did nothing but smile back at her.

I laughed. "I'm great!"

Her beautiful face dissolved into a scowl. "You could've been busted up back there. Or killed!"

"Fun though, wasn't it?" I asked with a cheeky grin.

"You'd die for fun?" Her incredulousness made me laugh more.

"Wouldn't you?" I asked in all seriousness.

She just rolled her eyes as she leaned down to press her cold lips to mine.

I lost my focus for a long time after that, but once I'd remembered how to breathe again a thought managed to wriggle into my brain. I looked up at Alice's adoring face. "You wouldn't have let me go if anything bad was going to happen anyway."

She smiled sheepishly. "True."

I grinned my most charming grin. "Wanna go again?"

"No!"

We trudged back up the hill and replaced the trashcan lids on the cans we had nicked them from. Both of us were soaked but only I was bothered by it. When we got back into her ridiculously yellow car she turned the heat all the way up.

"We'll be at your place soon. Then maybe we can start up that fireplace I saw earlier," she suggested with a wink. I felt like I was blushing to the roots of my hair.

"Okay, sure," I muttered.

**oooooo**

When we arrived back at my brother's house I was almost surprised when Alice pulled a small duffle bag out of the trunk and announced that she was going to change into something dry. I wondered if she had seen it all coming or if she just usually carried extra clothes with her all the time. Both options seemed equally likely.

When she returned from the bathroom in a dry outfit I followed her example and went to change.

I arrived back downstairs to find that the duffle bag was nowhere in sight and Alice was perched on the couch texting away on her fancy phone. The TV was on and set to some weird western movie. I picked up the remote to check the listings but my little vampire beat me to it.

"Princess Bride is about to come on."

"Oh, well," I tossed the remote back on the couch beside her and went to the fire place. It was one of those newfangled gas ones that didn't burn real wood. It was heat though, and it looked pretty so I didn't want to complain about it much.

There was some old phrase about gift horses that I nearly thought of before the pretty girl on the couch called for me.

We cuddled and laughed at one of our favorite movies. It felt like a slice of Heaven.

"You're like my very own Wesley," she said against my neck and I chuckled at the ticklish feeling.

"As you wish," I quoted. It was cheesy but it made her smile wider and I was into that.

When the movie ended we 'watched' a documentary that probably would have been really interesting if 'watched' had actually meant something other than 'kissed for the next two hours.' The only reason we stopped in the first place was because the back door rattled and then opened, pulling us apart because of the noise, and admitted my brother and his family.

I was nervous and shifty, and when they entered the living room I got more nervous and shifty because of their surprised expressions.

Alice seemed to be immune to the tension, or more likely, she was just very good at ignoring it. She uncurled herself from my side and stood. I followed her lead, grabbing her jacket off the chair we had put it on in front of the fireplace and moving to stand behind her.

"Hey, welcome back," I said uncertainly, glancing between Josh and Jenny. They didn't look angry, just surprised and I tried to relax but I didn't feel very successful. "Um, this is Alice. Alice this is my brother Josh, and you already met Jenny."

"Lovely to meet you, sir," she directed to my brother after smiling politely at Jenny.

"Have you eaten?" Jenny asked after a stretch of silence.

"Not since lunch," I replied, a nervous energy was filling my chest. I had the sudden urge to get Alice away from my family as quickly as possible before they embarrassed me, or before I embarrassed myself.

"I could make a late supper then. We could all get to know each other better," Jenny offered, glancing between Alice and myself in a way that was not at all subtle.

"Well actually, I must be going. My parents are expecting me home by nine. I'd love to take you up on that offer some other time though, and my mother did mention wanting to have you all for dinner soon," she offered as I helped her into her mostly dry coat. She gave me a sweet little grin when my lip curled at her turn of phrase.

I wondered briefly when she would have had time to tell her mother anything about our new classification and then I remembered her texting earlier in the evening after we had returned from our sledding adventure. Vampire moms must be cool enough to text. _Or she could be lying_.

"If you must…"Jenny replied, trailing off. There was tense silence for a moment and she shifted the sleeping boy in her arms. I looked pointedly between her and Wes a few times. "Oh! Um…I'm just going to go put Wes to bed. Nice seeing you again, Alice."

Alice smiled politely and moved aside so Jenny could pass her. My brother shuffled his feet for a second longer. "I think I'll do the same with Katie. It's been a pleasure, Ms. Cullen," he said quietly, in an effort to not wake Katie with his deep bass growl. He offered his hand awkwardly and she shook it.

I waited until he was gone before turning to Alice. "You're having us for dinner? You aren't going to cook are you?" I teased.

Alice huffed and pouted and poked my chest. "No!" she insisted over my chuckles. "Edward is quite the accomplished chef." That stopped my laughter.

"Well then I'm not going. He might try to poison me!"

Alice smiled and pulled me into a loose embrace, placing her ear over my thudding heart. "Hmm, he does hate you. But he loves Bella and me, and poisoning you would annoy us both."

"Oh, you'd be _annoyed _if I was poisoned?" I questioned sarcastically.

"Yes, I'd be extremely put off." I laughed again.

"Ugh! I'm not looking forward to what Josh is going to say once you leave," I muttered.

"It looks like it's going to be incredibly embarrassing, but he didn't sound angry," Alice informed me.

I gaped at her. "You little cheat! Tell me what he's going to ask."

She giggled. "I'm not giving you specifics, but he will want to know the nature of our relationship."

I rolled my eyes. "Great. What should I say?"

A mysterious smile stole over her tiny features. "You'll figure it out." She moved closer and lowered her voice. "Just so you know," she began, running a finger down my chest, "I'm quite pleased with your answer."

She refused to say anything else on the matter, even after I walked her to her car. I was just given a swift peck on the lips and then she was gone.

**JWJWJW**

**A/N: Well, it's only been about a year since I updated this…sorry about that. If any of you are still interested in it I'd love to hear from ya.**

**I'm not setting a review limit on this, because I just honestly want to know how many of you still care enough to review without prompting.**

**Also, I'm working on other things that are priorities, so I don't want to make promises with this.**

**Let me hear from ya.**


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